July i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



reduction in the swarms, and is serious for such 

 reduction is permanent. As the number of young 

 clearings increased, a smaller number of bees had 

 to search over the same surface as before for means 

 of subsistence ; but with their feeding-ground reduced 

 in area, whilst our requisition for their services was 

 annually increased, to have performed their func- 

 tions with the desired ratio of benefit, each year 

 their numbers should have increased to an enormous 

 extent, being the reverse of what has occurred. 

 Assuming that a bee could search over ten acres of 

 forest in a flay, when under coffee and a good 

 blossom out, a quarter of an acre would be an 

 excessive day's work, that is, 40 times the previous 

 number of bees would be required on those occasions ; 

 these figures are of course suppositions. Now the 

 truth is that they have decreased in numbers instead 

 of increased, as they have actually a smaller surface 

 from which to obtain nutriment for their subsistence 

 during the year, thus regulating the numbers to be 

 provided for ; and as long as the average of unopened 

 land is constant, so long will the average of bee 

 population remain constant. Of late years an extens- 

 ive acreage on which coffee was originally planted 

 has been put under other products, the coffee being 

 removed, and many estates have been entirely aban. 

 doned ; by these means during the blossoming season 

 a very considerable reduction has been effected in the 

 surface extent of coffee for the bees to visit, and con- 

 sequently though their actual numbers remain the 

 same, they appear in greater force sioce their field of 

 action is contracted. The following example will 

 explain my meaning : suppose an isolated district, 

 which includes 500 acres of coffee, is capable of support- 

 ing ten colonies of bees, and thnt this area under coffee 

 is reduced one-half, then during the succeeding 

 blossom there will be double the number of bees 

 visiting the 250 acres still existing ; they will present 

 the appearance Of an increase in their numbers, 

 whilst really tbey still remain the same in point of 

 multitude. From the "Directory " I glean the following 

 figures : — S0,950 acres were in cultivation in 1856 ; 

 these figures were increased to 176,467 in 1869, and 

 to 272,243 "in 1S77 ; this was coffee alone, and the 

 regular available feeding surface was reduced by this 

 acreage ; therefore a corresponding reduction must 

 have ensued in the quantity of bees. Assuming that 

 this quantity has remained without material alteration, 

 as so small an area of land has been opened since 

 then, we can naturally expect, that, if the coffee 

 acreage is largely curtailed, a proportionate number 

 of bees will be rendered available to work through 

 the existing coffee, and therefore will appear to have 

 increased. In 1SS4, 153,600 acres appear to be kept 

 in coffee, thus showing a difference of 118,643 acres 

 or nearly one-half less coffee to visit, and con- 

 sequently their numbers will appear doubled. At 

 the same time there is the probability that the bees 

 may have received reinforcement through food sup- 

 plies being obtainable in greater quantities by the 

 total abandonment of 53,540 acres, and a larger num- 

 ber could thus be supported. — Yours faithfully, 



SWADDY. 



JACKSON'S TEA DRIER. 

 Dear Sir, — In the T. A. of May 1st I remark 

 there is a description of "Jackson's New Tea Drier" 

 from the Home and Co'onial Mail, which, though 

 a very good paper, does not appear to be in this 

 case particularly lucid in its description of the 

 " New Drier. " We must only hope that Messrs. John 

 Walker & Co. will make it more plain to the ordinary 

 or "garden" planter. The Home und Colonial Mail 

 mentions the fact that elder leaves (with which the 

 machine was tried) after being rolled in an Ex- 

 celsior are /wt tea leaves, Will you, Sir, Editor, being a 



person who knows a tea leaf, corroborate this state- 

 ment ? The //. and C. Mail goes on to say that "the 

 tea {tea before it is even put into the drier ?) is 

 thrown into a hopper (I know from experience that 

 hoppers go well with early tea) and falls on to an end- 

 less baud consisting of metal plates (this sounds 

 rather strauge) and is evenly distributed over the 

 band by a kicker (surely they can't mean that horse- 

 power is used); the first endless band drops the tea on to 

 another longer and lower endless band, which 

 in its turn carries it to another longer and lower 

 endless band." One would think, that, with all these 

 endlees bands, the tea, like " Tennyson's brook," would 

 go on for ever. The elder leaves, it says, were dis- 

 charged thoroughly dried and crisp in 15 minutes. 

 (I would like to discharge my present boy under 

 the same conditions.) Thermometers and "speed 

 pulleys" are placed everywhere, and so, it says, 

 the speed and heat are under perfect control. 

 The name and price have not yet been decided 

 upon. " What 's in a name ? That which we call 

 a rose," etc., etc. What's in a price ? Messrs. Thompson 

 will get lots of orders without mentioning the price. 

 The first machine is going to a place sounding 

 very like Oonnemara — let us hope it will not be 

 "boycotted." One fact is mentioned which may per- 

 haps explain everything, and that is, that Messrs. 

 Marshall & Co. received the visitors who attended 

 the trial with the hospitality and courtesy for which 

 they have earned a well-merited reputation. I am 

 inclined to think that the correspondent of the 

 J!, and C. Mail partook of that hospitality. I re- 

 main, your obedient servant, O. H. THAT. 



TEA SEEDS AND PLANTS AND THE POSS- 

 IBILITY' OF GOING AHEAD TOO FAST 



WITH THE TEA ENTEKPPJZE. 

 Dear Sir,— Day after day your advertisement 

 column shows a falling-off in the price of tea plants, 

 and day by day the lower prices of seed will induce 

 people to put in nurseries themselves rather than 

 pay the exorbitant prices charged in some cases by 

 nursery-holders. 



If a fair basis of cost of plants be the price of 

 seed and the expense of rearing with, say, a reason- 

 able margin for land and trouble, then it is at once 

 evident that anything over, say, R5 per 1,000 for 

 tea-plants from Ceylon seed is unreasonable. Unlike 

 cinchona, which so often refused to germinate even 

 in the palatial erections one used to prepare for its 

 reception, or which when germinated required so much 

 attention in watering, poochy-mixture applying, &c. 

 too often rewarded by the so-called " canker " patches 

 occupying the whole beds to the discomfort of both 

 plants and nursery-men. Unlike cinchona, I repeat 

 which in many soils was so hopeless that the operation 

 of putting in a nursery resolved itself into throwing 

 away mouey, fresh tea seed will grow into plants 

 an, where it is put in.. It may be a little averse to 

 some kinds of gravel ; it does not like quartz in most 

 instances, and would not, 1 fancy, do well on paving 

 stones ; with these few exceptions, I know no soil or 

 locality where it would not flourish. It comes up 

 just as well without covering of any sort ; it needs 

 little or no watering. I have had really fine Assam 

 hybrid (Amluckie seed) uncovered through four hot 

 months without losing a plant (true, the seed was 

 very fine, large stuff which invariably gives you the 

 best and hardiest plant, and some inferior Ceylon 

 alongside suffered considerably), but in any case the 

 wattling necessary for tea in a well .-ltuated nursery 

 is trifling. Exposed ridges I have seen it doing well 

 on ; patana swamps it seems to like, as good plants 

 as one could wish for I have grown on the edge of 

 au Lsiatc load, aud to sum up, wherever good 



