February r, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



66s 



€'ixxxii»p(xnd$nc$, 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 



AN EX-CEYLON PLANTER IN THE WEST 



INDIES :— CURRIES, SAMBAL, AND 



COCOA CULTIVATION. 



Grenada, West Indies, 5th Nov. 1S82. 



Dear Sir, — Would any of your readers pity the 

 sorrows of a former S. L). and kindly give him the 

 following reijuired information in your ohirnns? 



I have been wretched since leaviug Cayl'in for the 

 want of a receipt for sanibal, and for an ordinary 

 upcountry meat curry ditto. It seems too silly to 

 have come away without the littl' all-round Ijits of 

 knowledge one ought to have reiu'-mbered. Perhaps 

 an "upciiuntry housekeeper" will help me. — I remain, 

 sir, yours obediently, . MENaTOHIE. 



P. S — As I am on a large cocoa estate here, I shall 

 be glad, through your columns, to answer any queries 

 I can. I enclose my card. 



[First, we extract the following receipts from authori- 

 ties at our command for the benefit of our corre- 

 spondent : — 



M.^DRAs CcRKV Paste. — 1 lb. coriander seed, \ lb. 

 urmerie, J lb. red chillies, \ lb. black pepper, J lli mustard 

 seed, '2 ounces dry ginger 2 ounces garlic, ^ ounces veiidinne, 

 J oz. salt, i lb. sug'ar, 2 ounces cummin seeil, J lb. gram. 

 Fry this and take of! the husks, then pound it with the other 

 ingredients and mix with h pint salad oil, ^ pint vinegar. 



Curry Powder. — 3 lbs. and 2 oz. coriander seeds, \ lb 

 dry chilUes, 14 ouuces black pepper. 14 ounces turmeric", 7 

 ounces cuiumiu seed, 7 ounces mustard, 8 ounces carda- 

 mom seeds, 1 ounce currypuUeix leaves. Dry, pound, and 

 weigh before mixing. 



CURRv Powder. — 1 lb. coriander seed, | lb. cummin seed, 

 6 ounces turmeric, 10 ounces chillies, 2^ ounces black pep- 

 per, 5 ounces vondinne, 4 ounces mustard seed, 1 handful 

 cutrypxdieix leaves. 



CuERY. — I'-ry some sliced onions till brown, in butter 

 Take out the onions and reserve. Mix the cuny powder 

 in a little stock, or water, till it is of the consisiency 

 of cream. Stir this in the butter out of whicli you have 

 taken the onions, and let it cook for ten minutes. Cut 

 the meat into dice, or, if chicken, into joints; slice up 

 one or two onions and apples, and stew all together in 

 the curry sauce for one and a half or two hours, adding 

 more stock if wanted. The curry sauce must be cooked long 

 enoush for the grains of curry powd-r and the butter to 

 separate, and the meat must be tender enough to be eaten 

 with a spoon. The browned onions are to be mixed in, and 

 just allowed to get hot, before serving the curry. Always 

 buy the best eurry powder and paste. 

 In Ceylon sugar and gram are not used. Sambal is 

 made in various ways: the ordinary red sambal is 

 composed of grated coconut, pounded chillies and lime 

 juice. — And now a wellknown cocoa planter has 

 suggested the following aa questions of some interest for 

 our correspondent to answer : — 



It would be interesting to know the distance at which 

 cocoa is planted in Grenaila and the size of the tree at say 

 three and seven years, the nnmber of pods (average) ihey beao 

 at these ages. Also how Ion? they ferment tlie cocoa and 

 ■whether they wash it ere drying. What is their test for 

 sufficiently dried cocoa ? 

 —Ed.] 



THE KOLA NUT IN CEYLON. 



Doonheenda, Madulsima, Jan. 19th. 

 Dear Sir,— You may not have seen the enclosed 

 pamphlet on the kola nut tree, if not you may think it 

 worth inserting. 



From what .\lr. Christy says the kola nut is a new 

 product worth cultivating. 



I have now some kola trees .3 years old, planted at an 

 elevation of 2,500, and they have only reached a height 



of 3 feet and show no signs of bearing fruit. Could any 

 one inform me of the proper elevation to grow them and 

 at what age they may be expected to bear? 



A CORRESPONDENT. 



[We have received not one but many copies of Mr. 

 Christy's engraving and account of the Kola Nut, 

 which seems to possess properties numerous and 

 diverse, ranging from the stimulative effects of coffee 

 to a cure for inebriety. We quote as follows : — 



I introduced the Kola Nut {Slercidia acuminata) into 

 England about eight years since, and it has lately been 

 subjected to European analysis,* and the results obtained 

 make it exceedingly likely that a large European demand 

 will soon exist. It has been found to contain the same active 

 principle, viz., caffeine, and more of it than the best coffee, 

 and to contain also the same act ve principle as cocoa, but 

 less fatty matter. Possessing t)ie same qualiiies as these 

 favorite beverages, it only needs proper treatment ti develop 

 a speciiU flavour, and it would then probably be able to 

 compete successfully with tliose beverages. The nuts are 

 used to form aretreshing and invigorating drink throughout 

 a large portion of Tropical Africa, their use being said to 

 support the strength, allay iuDrdiuate appeiite, assuage 

 thirst, and promote digestion, and to render those using 

 them capable of prolonged fatigue. I'he negroes prefer 

 them to tea or coflee, and when they can obtain fiola nuts, 

 will not touch cofl'ee. Dr. Daniell says of them :— '• It would 

 be difficult to find any product which constitutes such an im- 

 portant article of commerce in Soudan as the kola Nut."* 

 Whe-ever the negro has been transplanted to a foreign coun- 

 try he has taken the koli nut with liim. As a medium of 

 exchange for the proJucis of ntral Africa, no article 

 coidd be more advantageous, and on this aci-ount alone the 

 tree will well repay cultivation. Moreover, if O' ce intro- 

 duced as a beverage in civilized countries, the demand for it 

 would soon become enormous. 



I have recently been informed by Mr. Espeut, a well- 

 known suiar planter of Jamaica, that the negroes use the 

 kola nut as a remidy for drunkenness; that swallowing a 

 sintjie nut, ground up and made into a cream or paste with 

 water or spirit no sign of iatoxicalion remains half-aii-hour 

 afterwards. Confirmatory evidence of this proiierty in the 

 kola nut is given by a surgeon, Mr. Papefio, who tolls me 

 that alcoholic drinks, do not produce intO-Xiciiing effects 

 when the kola nut is eaten at the same time. 



It appears, therefore, that the craving for drink, which is 

 such a strong iTiceutive to drunkenness, may be subdued by 

 the use of this valuable stimulant and tonic, as alter chew- 

 ing the kola nut great disinclination is felt to all forms of 

 alcohol. It has also been found to possess a beneficial 

 action on the liver, its continual use preventing attacks of 

 despondency to which negroes are peculiarly liable. Dr. 

 Daniell records a case of this kind, in which the kola nut 

 put a stop to an epidemic of suicidal mania, which threat- 

 ened at one time to depopulate the estate on which it 

 occurred. It is also used by the natives wlien in a low state 

 of health, suffering from the skin cracking and peeling on 

 the hands and feet. 



While coffee remained normally fruitful, it would 

 scarcely have been a recommendation to Ceylon plant- 

 ers that koLi nut was superior to coffee, but certainly 

 now is the time to hail a remedy against low spirits 

 and a tendency to suicide. The experience of our 

 present correspondent seems to shew that the trees do 

 not fruit readily at so moderate an elevation as 2,500 

 feet. Can other correspondents (ill up .''urther items 

 of local experiments? — Ed.] 



LIBERIAN COFFEE AND TEA. 



January 20th. I8S3. 

 Sir,— From all I have seen and heard Libeiian 

 coffee is a failure in Ceylon. Goiug along the line 

 you see Liberian, not only trees with heavy crop 

 without a single leaf on, but trees without a 

 berry on in the same state. A planter, who has an 

 estate in the bill district beyond Kaudy, told me 

 that his Liberiau trees were affected with leaf- 

 disease more virulently than he ever saw it on 



• See "New Commercial Plants," Nos. III. and VI, 



