August i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



131 



Sunday : the reason of this ia that the reports being 

 made up every Monday, it is more convenient to 

 add in the rainfall of the Sunday with the previous 

 week. The total rainfall is 23 59, which analysed 

 stands thus :— January '61, February '72, March 6'34, 

 April 112, May 5'80, June 9 00, against the Lang- 

 dale average for 8 years of January 3 67, February 

 2.09, March 2-34, April 7-01, May 6-57, June 17 '53 : 

 total 3923 So that the 6rst six months of 1884 show 

 a deficiency of 15 64 on the average. This drought 

 suited the high estates, but proved for a time 

 detrimental, we believe, to the low country ones. 

 During the six months under review, 90 out of the 

 110 acres have been very cirefully pruned, all the 

 primings being buried along with all surrounding 

 rubbish. The pruned portion has not yet recovered 

 itself, which accounts for the great falling-off latterly 

 in made tea, but in spite of this the average yield for 

 the whole acreage for Ihe six months is 529 lb. per 

 acre. The yield and average will now go on steadily 

 rising till the eud of the year, when I shall again, 

 if spared send you the 12 months' returns, showing 

 I hopeover 60U lb. per acre. We have had a slight, 

 touch, of red spider and helnpeltis, but nothing to 

 peak of, as the figures prove." 



.Returns from 110 acres of tea, 7 and S years old, on 

 Abbotsford Estate, 4,600 to 6,100 feet, for 6 months, January 

 to June 1884 :— 



i acres in August 1883. 



We have also received from a highly esteemed 

 planting friend some tea statstics which he asks us 

 to publish if we see fit. As all that concerns tea 

 is of great value just now, especially when it has 

 the guarantee of a good name at its back, we willing]] 

 make room for the following letter, but we must, say 

 we were at first stanled by our friend's tigims. Those 

 Standing opposite each month evidently represent the 



yield of o?ie acre. In that case the yield for the twelve 

 months would be 1,216 lb. per acre ! A grand out- 

 turn, but one which we by no means consider imposs- 

 ible : as witness Mr. Armstrong's 1,200 lb. off one 

 particular held. Our correspondent writes from " Lower 

 Dikoya " : — 



" We are having the finest S. W. monsoon I can re- 

 member since 1875, it being also a very mild one. At the 

 end of that year I planted five acres of tea (hybrid 

 Assam) which gave me in one month this year (March) 

 over 200 lb. made tea per acre, the only month I kept a 

 separate account of this field. However, the following 

 is the detailed account of a field from 1st January to 

 30th June 1884, pruned in July last and now four 

 years old, viz : — January... 78 Jb. 



February.. 88 „ 



March ... 126 „ 



April ... 88 „ 



May ... 106 „ 



June ... 127 „ 



608 lb. per acre 

 made tea in six months. This quantity might have been in- 

 creased with a more favourable season. The low prices realized 

 fur ittyoiees of this tea maybe accounted for, not by the 

 quantity so much as the fact that 60 per cent of the plucked 

 leaf is i/oung shoots off trees or rather plants not yet 

 two years old, thus producing a dull out-turn ami thin 

 liquor. 



— ♦ 



Olive Oil.— In California the olives are first dried on 

 trays with slat bottoms, tiers upon tier.- <>f these being piled 

 m a kirn over a furnace fire. Then they are ground be- 

 tween stone rollers, worked by huge wheels turned by horse 

 power. The oil thus pressed out is poured iuto tanks or 

 huge butts. Here it has to stand and. settle three or four 

 months. There are faucets at different levels in these 

 butts, so as to draw off different layers of oil. After it 

 has settled sufficiently it is filtered through six layers of 

 cotton wadding, then through one of French paper, before 

 it is bottled. It is then of a delicate straw color, with a 

 slight greenish tint. — Leader. 



The " Indian Fobestek " for June has the follow- 

 ing articles:— 1. Articles, Correspondence, etc.— Sandal ; 

 the Sandal "Wood Oil Stills of South Oanara ; a 

 loint of Forest Law; Report on Cinchona Plantations in 

 Madras; \\ eather Indicator from Bermuda; Fore-tEev, uue 

 Chalau* ; Revenue and Expenditure of the Forest Depart- 

 ment ; the Maipuk. 2. Reviews.— Mr. Moil's Report on 

 the 'Chos of Hushyarpur (1883); Madras Agricultural 

 Essays. 3. Official Papers.— Report on Locusts ; Instruc- 

 tions how to Preserve Plants Intended for Identification. 

 4. limber Market.— Messrs. MacKenzie, Lyall & Co *s Cal- 

 cutta Tim: er Market Report for March and April 5 

 Notes, Queries aud Extracts.— The Cardamom Hills of 

 Tiavaucore ; Rearujg Silkworms in the Ohanga Minga 

 Plantation; Gumea-grass and Lucerne; Rules for Sni s ■ 

 Cashaw; Common Forest Trees of the Adirondacks \ 

 matches. 6. -Extracts from Official Gazettes. We make 

 an extract :— Madras Agricultural Essays —The report of 

 the Madras Agricultural Exhibition, a copy of which has 

 been sent to us, contains in addition to the usual in- 

 formation as to exhibits, prizes, attendance, etc.. the 

 best of the essays submitted to the Committee by priv- 

 ate competitors. Two essays are published on the manage- . 

 nient of soils under coffee in Southern India, four on 

 the best and m.st economical methods of utilizing irrig- 

 ation water, and two on the best method of laying down 

 fuel plantation in India. The essays on coffee soils are 

 interesting as far as they go, but they are more or less 

 incomplete. Both authors insist stronglv on the import- 

 anee of good manure, and in Mr. Clarke's essay stress 

 is very rightly lairl on the fact that soils under coffee 

 owe the diminution of their fertility far more to loss 

 by waste than to the removal of a material in crop 

 The author points out that if the soil is to be kept in 

 a fertile condition this loss by waste must be prevented, 

 and he shows that such a process, although necessarily 

 expensive, can with care be made profitable. He urges 

 that organized experiments should be made to elucidate 

 the best available methods by which this can be done 



