October i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



267 



those very Hue ones of Sciadopitys verticillata, Athro- 

 taxis selaginoides, Cryptomerias, Retinosporas and 

 maples. 



Among a quantity of interesting machinery in mo- 

 tion, including a variety of sawing aud planing benches, 

 we were particularly struck by the tea-manufacturing 

 machinery shown by Messrs. Greig of Edinburgh. 

 This consists of the Globulous Pipe Hot-air Generator 

 or tea-dryiug stove, one of great power and simplicity; a 

 rapid drying or withering machine that can be used also 

 for winnowing ; the link aud lever tea-rolling machine ; 

 a sifting'maehine, giving four graduated sieves a steady 

 circular motion, and so saving much waste ; aud a 

 green-leaf cutting and equalizing machine, consisting 

 of a roller armed with croBs-cuttiug knives. This 

 series of instalments seem powerful, simple aud inex- 

 pensive, and should euable the tea-planter to prepare 

 and send to market tea of uniform quality, with a 

 minimum of waste. 



Enough has been said to prove the statement made 

 at the outset that the exhibition at Edinburgh con- 

 tains much matter of interest to everybody, and it 

 is to be hoped that the public will iusure its financial 

 success and th>it the science and practice of forestry 

 may benefit by it and the conferences which it is 

 proposed to hold in connection with it. — Field. 



THE FORESTRY EXHIBITION. 



EDINBURGH, 10th July. — The International Forestry 

 Exhibition had its first big day on Tuesday, when the 

 popular shilling became the charge for admission. To 

 some extent the Executive have been unlucky, for on 

 Saturday, for example, the first great popular excur- 

 sion day of the season, the price remnined at half a 

 crowu. It was a wet day, and thousands of visitors 

 would have gone had it been a shilling, for a covered 

 show is always popular. On Tuesday a great illumin- 

 ation fete was advertised for the evening, and a 

 birge crowd went. But just a little before eight, 

 when many more would have been going, down came 

 an awful rain, and it soon got dnrk inside, aud the 

 rain made outside illumination impossible so that the 

 fete had to be postponed. They were not much more 

 lucky on the next evening, so that what with open- 

 ing before the thing was in order, and with mishaps 

 of weather and so on, the managers have been rather 

 unfortunate ; however, we hope for better things. 



In such an Exhibition two points have to be sed- 

 ulously cultivated, the " popular " and the " pract- 

 ical." It has to be sufficiently attractive to bring the 

 thousands of people who want to be amused, and 

 whose money pays the expenses, and at the same to 

 be valuable to the expert, who comes in dozmsonly, 

 not in thousauds, and whose money never would make 

 the thing pay. In the present case, I am bound to 

 say that both ends have been very well catered for. 

 Given a fountain, a military band, and some machinery 

 in motion, and you can generally get a good crowd. 

 When to this you add such attractions as Mr. Glad- 

 stone's silver axe, and the bark shell of one of the 

 " big trees " from California, into which two score of 

 people can go at once, and a great lot of curious 

 things beside, of course the populace will support 

 you. I have just discovered aud described, for the 

 benefit of n^edy people, how it is possible to get to 

 the Exhibition free of cost. An enterprising maker 

 of essence of coffee has a stand wherein those neat 

 American paper boxes, sample bottles, are piled up 

 each with a request to "try this sample." On the 

 box it is mentioned th.it the bottle contains one-tenth 

 of what is given in a shilling bottle, so that a per- 

 son has only to pass tho stand ten times and " try 

 a sample " each time, and theu he can leave the place 

 with essence of coffee to the full value ol his admis- 



sion money and thus see all the Exhibition for nothing ! 

 Curiously enough, this is the only edible thing given 

 away, for though you can get lots of samples of Cali- 

 fornian red-wood, and German wood pulp paper, and 

 a host of other things, the singularly attractive eatable 

 " free, gratis for nothing " things to be picked up in 

 the Health Exhibition in London are not seen here 

 I don't think I ever saw a fellow so much sold as 

 the man to whom I first otfered to explain the new 

 patent for seeing the Exhibition for nothing. Know- 

 ing my Press connectiou, I think he expected at once 

 to get a free pass to seetheshow, and his disappoint- 

 ment on learning the details of the coffee trick may 

 be conceived. Even today, what promises to be one 

 of the most valuable and interesting branch's of the 

 Exhibition is not in place, nam»ly, that from Japan. 

 Curiosity is a good deal whetted on the subject, 

 for the island Empire of the East asked for a 

 whole transept in the building, 5,400 square feet 

 of floor space, and it is understood that the Japiuese 

 hope to astonish us with their collection In the 

 meantime the Indian Government and other Eastern 

 exhibits form the most attractive part of the show. 

 Colonel Michael, arranged the Indian section, so that 

 one feels certain that the Forest Department has put 

 its best foot foremost, both on the popular and the 

 practical side. The uneducated eye takes in at once 

 the idea of that wonderful sheaf of bambo • pules 85 

 feet in length — the stock in trade of many homes, and 

 occupying a position not unlike that attributed to 

 Edinburgh ale of being " meat, drink aud clothing." 

 At any rate the bamboo is fuel, housing and many 

 other things to many myriads of people. The natural 

 mind can also run to the contemplation of the model 

 of the Burmese monastry in carved teak, or the beauti- 

 ful door in cedrus, deodara, or the curious roc's quills 

 or ribi of the Raphia palm, the last not Indian but 

 from Zanzibar. But all those are but the mere fringes 

 and ornaments of a singularly valuable and complete 

 illustration of what India can do in the way of wood 

 production. The Burmese section is very interesting, 

 affording the most artistic exhibit in this department 

 in the shape of a large gong stand in teak, caved 

 in an elaborate foliaginous and zoomorphic design. The 

 plan of shewing the various timbers from India has 

 been much admired, there being a straight cut and a 

 conic cut of each tree in the same log showing the 

 grain all the three ways — and iu most cases both polished 

 and rough. This to the practical man shows at once 

 the value of a wood in grain, &c., aDd how it stands 

 a cross cut. The principal made-up exhibits of wood 

 in the Indian section are those sent from the Forest 

 Department of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 

 A magnificent slab of the poon tree here attracts at- 

 tention, showing a wood capable of use for many pur- 

 poses and hitherto unknown here. The beautiful 

 " padowk " wood, running in some examples to a 

 striking crimson hue, is not so strange, for I observe 

 it amongst the Royal Arsenal exhibits as a wood not 

 unknown in use there. But it has not come before 

 us commercially, and a fine mantle piece, a railway 

 carriage door, tables, wheels, and other articles show 

 it in use and in some cases in combination with the 

 fine white " thingan •' or the pleasant greeneryyel- 

 lery. walnut-like wood yclept " chftgalam." A table 

 of the last named, with turned legs of padowk and 

 struts of the curious black and grey "marble wood" 

 struck me as quite too fine as an " occasional table." 

 If those woods are easily wrought they present to 

 our cabinet makers and furniture artistes infinite poss- 

 ibilities of colour which the woods in ordinary use. 

 mahogany, walnut, and oak, do not offer. To let off 

 the practical part with one touch of nature, several 

 palm trees in tubs have been brought in ; and right 

 at the top of the transept where India is located, 

 there is the fountain surrounded with shrubs and 



