88 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[August i, 1884. 



England, conies from friend Hu's native place. He tells me 

 that it owes much of its excellence to careful manipulation 

 when firing. The firing pans are, he tells me, always laid 

 with their edges horizontal, so that they are heated on all 

 sides uniformly, the greatest heat being of course at the 

 bottom, nearest the fire, whence it radiates equally all 

 around. An expert person can fire in a proper manner only 

 three or four pounds of tea daily. A small quantity, about 

 as much as a person can hold in both hands, is placed in the 

 pan at a time, and is constantly worked in a manner to roll 

 the leaves whilst the firing is going on. Mr. Hu informs me 

 that heavy losses have been sustained in the tea trade of late 

 years. 



Tea being much cheaper than formerly, it is impossible to 

 make anything out of it. In former years these teas were 

 carried to Canton for sale, and brought fine prices. Of late 

 years, however, there is generally a loss of twerty per cent. 

 on cost of production, my informant says, but how they can 

 manage to carry on a trade under such circumstances I 

 cannot understand. 



Hu tells me that the preparation of the tea is a costly and 

 tedious affair. The tea trade commences now in May. 

 People are bringing in their teas in small parcels of three or 

 four pounds to the receivers or Hongs. Some of these Hongs 

 have a hundred men or more employed to select and pack 

 the teas. Hu has over a hundred. These men have to be 

 well paid, as the work must be done smartly and well, so as 

 to catch the market, and preserve its quality. In the first 

 place the tea has all been sorted by hand and both ends 

 of each leaf nipped off, leaving just the body of the leaf only 

 to pass as first quality tea. This work is done by women 

 whose nimb'e fingers manage to do a lot in one day, and at 

 lower wages than men would do the work for. The careful 

 selection and equal nipping is thus an important matter, but 

 the proper firing is undoubtedly the most impo-tant of 

 all. Careful packing is also an indispensable necessity in 

 order to preserve the aroma of the tea on the voyage, as no 

 amount of proper firing can preserve the quality unless it is 

 also well packed. — Overland China Mail. 



A Liberian coffee planter at Deli intend;) shipping 

 to New York two tons of the produce as a trial ship- 

 ment. This speaks well of the productiveness of the 

 soil of that place for coffee. But we are looking for- 

 ward with interest for the same staple from Johore ; 

 if the specimens of coffee beans, we have seen taken 

 from H. H. Maharajah's plantation be a criterion, 

 the soil must bo quite as good as that of Deli if not 

 better. — Straits Intelligence, June 14th. 

 '" Paper bottles are now made on a large scale in 

 Germany and Austria. The paper must be well Bized. 

 The following is said to be a good receipt tor the paper : 

 — Ten parts of rags, forty of straw, fifty of brown wood 

 pulp. The paper is impregnated or coated on both 

 sides with sixty parts of defibrinated fresh blood, thirty- 

 five parts of lime powder, five parts sulphate of alumina. 

 Alter drying, ten or twelve rolled leaves are eonted 

 again placed over each other, and then placed iu 

 heated moulds. The albumen iu the blood forms a com- 

 bination on pressure with the lime which is perfectly 

 proof against spirits, etc. The bottles are made iu two 

 pieces, which are joinedafterwards. — Americau\Cultivator. 



The cockchafer grub continues to commit serious 

 ravages in the Lloyd Botanical Garden, at Darjeeling. 

 It is said to be similar to the grub which has proved 

 very destructive to coffee planted in pntana, or grass 

 land, in Ceylon. Specimens of the grub itself, and 

 of the beetle into which it develops, have been sent 

 to a specialist in London with a view to establishing 

 the identity of the species, and discovering a remedy 

 for the pest. In the meantime, if it appears in the 

 garden again this year, the distribution of living 

 plants to outsiders will be suspended, so that the 

 plague may not spread over the district. If the gru'} 

 should take a fancy to tea, it would be very un- 

 fortunate. Happily, it does not appear hitherto to have 

 shown any partiality in that direction. — Indian Agri- 

 culturist. 



Decadence of Leaf-disease? — We learn that on the 

 estate in Madulsiina where leaf-disease was first observed, 

 fifteen years ago, (in may 1 869 ) there is at present a 

 coffee crop equal to 8 cwt. per acre. We trust this 

 may be of good augury. It is true that in large por- 

 tions of Dimbula, Dikoya and Maskeliya, corp is by no 

 means in proportion to blossom. This is owing to the 

 debility of the trees from the action of .leaf -disease and 

 the absence of manure. The fungus may, nevertheless, 

 be decreasing in virulence ? 



A whiter in a contemporary journal says : — " I dis- 

 covered, many years ago, that wood could be made to 

 last longer than iron in the grouud, but thought the 

 process so simple that it was not well to make a stir 

 about it. Posts of any wood can be prepared for less 

 than two ceuts apiece. This is the recipe : — Take boiled 

 linseed-oil and stir in pulverized coal to the consistency 

 of paint. Put a coat of this over the timber, and there 

 is not a man that will live to see it rot." — American 

 Cultivator. 



Rubber Cultivation in Java. — A. correspondent 

 writing from Bantam, says : — "I have begun rapping toy 

 rubbers {Ficus elasticus) ; a three-year old tree gave ilb. 

 rubber at one tapping. It does not seem to injure the 

 trees : only where the cuts have been made in the bark, 

 young roots sprout out, but this, I am told by tire natives, 

 is always the case with Ficus elasticus. The Ceara 

 seems to give more sap than the Ficus elasticus. I 

 will report later on, on this sort, as my Ceara J are not 

 old enough for tapping : only one or two about 2J 

 yeai-3 old have been tried, and they were full of 

 juice." 



Dabjeeling.— Still no rain worth speaking of. The 

 ground is as dry as a brick, aud unless we have an inch 

 or so of rainfall within the next week or so, I fear very 

 much that matters will be rather serious up here. As it is, 

 rice is selling at almost the same rates as in 1874, and the 

 coolies are, consequently, a good deal pinched. There is, 

 fortunately, no chance of anything like a famine up here, 

 because the hill men can always get a "square meal" otf 

 jungle products of kinds. In some parts of the district the 

 maize has sprouted, and this is just the time when a fall of 

 rain does most good to this very important crop. Tea also is 

 much retarded. There is a splendid " flush" all over the hill 

 portion of the district, only just waiting for some moisture, 

 aud should a good fall of rain come soon, it will be a case of 

 all hands on at leaf pickiug. Talking of tea reminds me that 

 terrible mischief has been done to some new extensions in the 

 district within the last few years by the larvae of two varieties 

 of cockhafer. The Lloyd Botanic Garden has also been 

 suffering much from the same pest for several years past' 

 These grubs remain underground in the larval state for 

 three years before being developed into the perfect insect, 

 aud during the whole of that time they eat everything before 

 them in the way of roots of plants, not excepting those of 

 the Ceronutune Ferox, and grow enormously fat. It is really 

 pitiable to see what havoc these pests can commit. It is 

 apparently a thoroughly established fact that these larva 

 only appear in places where the soil has been coutamiuated 

 by green manure, such as the sites of old bustees ; or, as 

 in the case of the Lloyd Botanic Garden, wheie night-soil 

 has been washed down by heavy rain. So far the only 

 effectual remedy appears to be digging the grouud thoroughly 

 well when a youug plant appears to be withering, to catch 

 the perpetrator of the mischief and hand him over to the 

 tender mercies of the moorffhies. I am afraid to commit 

 myself to an exact statement of the number of these larva 

 unearthed in the Botanic Garden but I am sure I am well 

 within the mark when I put it dowu at over five millions 

 within the last three years, and I know of one case in 

 which over eighty thousand were dug out from a tea ex- 

 tension of less than twenty acres ; and the other day I 

 saw another extension where this pest had destroyed fully 

 sixty per cent, of the young plants. Digging lime into 

 the ground is being tried as a remedy, but it is im- 

 possible to say yet whether it will lie successful or not. 

 Leaf plucking has been commenced all over the district, 

 but on a very small scale so far. — Indigo ami Tea 1'lanters' 

 Gazette. 



