528 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1882. 



a wintering. In Jaffna and in Kalpentyn, the only two 

 place.s in Ce.vlon where grafx^s used to be grown to profit, 

 in lU-fault of wictering, the vine waa pruned of every 

 leaf and twig in April, and the roots were expomd 

 and pruned also (as far as the small fading ones went) 

 and so left for three to six weeks. At the expiration 

 of tliis time, the roots of the vine were covered and 

 heavily manurpd, and the vine w.is watered profusply 

 for three months or till the grapts were ripe. The 

 object of their half-killing the vine, at the prescribed 

 period waa that, in the places named there was seldom 

 any rain from April to end of May or beginning o£ 

 June. If however, there did happm to be aiuj rain 

 while the vine w.is thus wintered, there was a general 

 shooting out by the vine and »iO crop. 



Now, whether the climate of the (,". P. would ad- 

 mit of the iudispensable substitute for a wintering, let 

 your i^orrespondi-nt siy. — Yours. " EXPERIENCE." 



Coffee in Cooko. — Perhaps the follovvmg quot;itiou 

 from a letter I recently received from an old, ex- 

 perienced Indiau planter may be of some interest to 

 the readers of the Obfcrvei : — "I got last season 37 

 ton.-! from 78 acres 4 year old coffee and hope next 

 season to get 60 tons from 150 acres. There is very 

 little borer now and little or no leaf-disease, but we 

 have only shade to bless for the disappearance of 

 both." The above quotation refers to the Bamboo 

 districts of Coorg. — Cor. 



Thk I'nyLLoxERA AND Vines in Sandy Soil.— M. 

 Lalaude, the Deputy and Mayor of Bordeaux, recently 

 paid a visit to the principal vineyards in the .'iouth 

 lor the purpose of ascertaining the efBoiency of the 

 different modes of C"ping with the terrible phylloxera. 

 At Aiijues-Mortes, M. Lalande found all the sandy soils 

 planted with Fienoh vines in a flourishing condition 

 demmstrating the revolution which has resulted from 

 th'-di-icovery of the impotence of tlie phylloxera against 

 a sandy soil. Lands which a few years ago would not 

 have fetched lOOfr. a hectare, are now worth lO.OOOfr. 

 — Colonies and Indi!. 



CiscHONA Cultivation.— It may interest some of 

 your readers to know how many seedlings can be 

 raised from an ounce of cinchona eeed. Mr. Mclvor 

 in his work says, that on an average 20,000 to 

 25,000 plauts may be raised, and Mr. Owen in his 

 work says 2 oz. of Calisaya have given 40. 000 plants, 

 adding that this seed was no doubt unusually fresh 

 and good, and that it would not bo safe to re'y on 

 such satisfactory results. I put down an oz. of 

 Ledgeriaua seed in a glass-house, and pricked out 

 two months after sowing, 63,700 seedlmgs ; these are 

 now five months old, and up to date I have lost 

 about 2,000 from grubs, and a small number died off 

 from one c^iuse and another. 1 think that 60,000 

 plants can be safely relied on. Intending purchasers 

 of Ledger seed will, I think, be glad of this informa- 

 tion. —T. Brown, Coonoor, 28th Oct. 



TEi.— Bogawautalwa, 17th Nov.— How many tea 

 seeds are there to the maund and how many plants may 

 you expect from good seed? We are having tine morn- 

 ings and wet afternoons : A. 1 growing weather. [The 

 author of "Tea-planting in Ceylon and Southern 

 Inilia" published at this office, says: — " Like all soft 

 flashy seeds of large body, the tea seed is very per- 

 ishable, and cannot stand long journeys, unless packed 

 witli the utmost care when quite fresh. Of fair class 

 hybrid seed, one miy calculate nbout 30,000 seeds to 

 the Bengal maund of 82 1b.. and allowing 10 per ceut 

 for light seed, a maund should produce 27,0(10 seed- 

 hn^s. The best result, however, that I ev.r obtained 

 from seed which had travelled from Assam to the 

 Neil'Jherries, was 43,500 from two inaunds of seed, and 

 this result was only obtained by unremitting care and 

 atteutiou. I would consider 12,000 or 15,000 .seedlings 

 per maund which has travelled fioni Assam to Southern 

 Iiid'a as a very fair resuU. '— Ed.] 



The Madra.s Cinchona Gardens.— The Gardeners' 

 Chronicle reports that Professor Lawson is about to 

 vacate the Professorship of Botany at Oxford, to as- 

 sume the post of Superintendent of the Ciovernmeut 

 Cinchona plantations, Madras. Professor Lawson will 

 carry on analyses of bark no douSt in connection 

 with experiments in culiure. His animal reports 

 will be lookeil for with much iutereist. 



Sand vkfsus Oiiaphite Baths. — From time imme- 

 morial chemists have ued a sind-batli, where a tem- 

 perature is to be obtained higher than that of the 

 boiling of water or of oil. The me'hod is not wholly 

 rational, however, sand being a very bad conductor 

 of heat, Herr Kristdba lia» lately recommended the 

 substitution of pounded fragments of gr.iphite : they 

 let the heit pass much better, do not oxidise, and 

 do not soil the inclosing ves.sel. L'Eli'tiricM com- 

 mends the method to electricians who have to make 

 researches in thermo-electricity, addmgthat small shot 

 of iron would nearly' serve the same purpose. For 

 more intense he.ats, it is known, melted lead can be 

 used. — Public Opinion. 



Tea Grown 3n Patena Soil. —A planter in a high 

 district writes : — "What do yuu thiuk of the follow- 

 ing? Last sea-oii our average outturn of tea from a 

 young field (origin dly patena) only three years old in 

 June last, was 320 lb. per acre When it comes into 

 full bearing 1 have no douht double thut quantity 

 will easily be secured." JFe think the result m ist en- 

 couraging ; but we have no doubt that Mr. Mucklewrath 

 and his A.D.C. of the four letters, will be able to 

 shew that motives of the most reprehensible kind — at 

 least a dark design to lure capitalists to their ruin — 

 prompted the statement publicly of eiich a fact. 

 According to the new gospel of coudenination, ii is 

 only failure and loss which ought to be publisbed. 



Planting at Stake. —A tea planter writes : — 

 "In reference to a remark from the senior editor 

 about planting at stake, on K. A. W. 4- acres were 

 planted at stake, the seeds being first gennina'ed and 

 cue and two seeds planted alternately in the holes. 

 The experiment was a perfect .success, the double 

 seeds supplying all vacancies for over 6 months, not- 

 withstanding that a lot of j'oung plants were de- 

 stroyed." We can quite understand success being se- 

 cured by previous germination and very careful planting 

 so as not to lu'eak the shoots. Both methods have 

 been tried in India, and we believe the large majority 

 give preference to growing seeds in nurseries and 

 planting oat. Each planter must be guided by his 

 experience. 



Mica and Vanadium — We have received further 

 fine specimens of laminated Mica from Mr. Jordan 

 of Lindula, who tells us that his enquiries at 

 home failed to secure a satisfactory offer for the 

 samples he had with him. Were the Mica plates 

 only white in jilace of brown, they would be valued at 

 lO.s per lb. Anything over one shilling might prove profit- 

 able for ordinary Ceylon plates of this mica. For 

 mica in the mass (to be crushed and used as 

 lubricating m.aterial) £10 per ton in Ci'lonibo 

 would probably be raid ; but this would not snifioe 

 for the digging and sorting in addition to carriage, 

 —at least from Uva, seeing that the cost of 

 transport to the coast would swallow half the amount. 

 Mica plates, it seems, are now used at home as shades 

 for lamps instead of coloured paper. — In this con- 

 nection we may .Tsk who has been bringing the new 

 Ceylon metal ("Vanadium") to light, according to 

 paragraphs in the home pajjers. The description of 

 it is as follows : — • 



Va-na-di-um, ??. [N. Lat, & Fr., from Vanadis, a surname of 

 the .Scandinavian godde.-ss J'reyja.] (C'/tem.) A metal, diseovered 

 by Sefstrora in 16.^0, haviii;> a white eolor, and a stroiii? met- 

 alHc lustre, considerably resemliHug silver but .still more like 

 molybdenum. It is extremely brittle, and is not oxidized either 

 by air or water, though by continuous exposure toS he atmos- 

 phere its lustre grows weaker, aud it acquirei a reddish tint. 



