486 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1884. 



"Helopeltis" in Excelsis — We have received 

 from Peradeniya a small sample tin box crammed 

 full with Helopeltis, the result of 4 cooly boys' efforts 

 over 30 acres of cacao for two days ! Anyone de- 

 sirous of becoming familiar with the insect or 9eeing 

 it in the mass can do so at our office. 



Tea Machinery occupies a good deal of atten- 

 tion in our community now, and we are sure to have 

 new contrivances and improvements year by year. The 

 agent for a large Lincoln firm of manufacturers is at 

 present in the island aod is interested in learning how 

 Ceylon planters go in for patents on their own account. 

 The latest report is from a correspondent who writes :— 

 " I hear that a well-known Dikoya planter has invented 

 a new tea-rolling machine and also a drier. We 

 shall soon have plenty to pick aud choose from." 



Tea Superseding Coffee in Fiji.— A correspondent 

 of the Fiji Times, writing from Bua, states : — 



Nawi was another European settlement situated on 

 the bank of the Bua River. Tnis place has been bought 

 back by Tni Bua, and is now his own personal pro- 

 perty. If he would purchase back all the blocks of 

 laud he has sold to the whites be would rejoice 

 the hearts of many. Mr. Wilkinson sticks to the 

 old place— grows coffee at Kadi, and runs cattle 

 at Wailailai. Kadi, the last time I saw it, looked 

 well. I have seen several of the coffee estates in 

 Fiji, but neither of them, in my opinion, equals Kadi 

 as I saw it some years ago. Mr. Wilkinson has a 

 very perfect coffee curing establishment at Wailailai 

 where the coffee is hulled, aud sized, and prepared 

 for the market. All the machinery is driven by 

 steam power. Rain is much wanted at Bua^ and 

 indeed on the whole of Vanua Levu. Every- 

 thing is languishing for waut of the refreshing 

 showers. Only two inches of rain have fallen 

 since the 20th of April. The grass is brown 

 and dry and bush fires are of frequent occurrence. 

 YVainunu apoears the most lively part of the Bua 

 province. The coffee eBtate of Messrs. Sharpe, Fletcher 



6 Co., situat d in the locality, has just changed hands 

 —Messrs. McKinnon and Barret are the purcbasi rs. 

 It is reported that the,e gentlemen intend to pull up 

 all the coffee and plaut tea. They have had considerable 

 experience in the cultivation of the tea plant in India, 

 and have every confidence in the soil and climate of 

 Fiji, and thiuk both are admirably adapted to the 

 profitable cultivation of tea. Everyone, I am sure, 

 will wish them success in their operations. 



Again the Fiji Times states : — 



The Messrs. Martin Bros, of Waiuunu, have decided 

 that the Government and the Immigration (Alice is 

 too strong for them, aud they have therefore sold 

 out their coffee estates, at a very considerable loss, 

 to Mr. Simpson, a comparatively new arrival, and pro- 

 pose quitting the colony by the Hero. The lust straw 

 which broke the camel's back was a convictiou before 

 the local magistrate for neglecting to weigh out food 

 to the house servants, who fed from the r employer's 

 table, accompanied by an intimation from the liench 

 that these women (who bad been eogaged specially 

 as house servants) should not be set io work before 



7 a.m. ; should have the full hour in the middle of 

 the' day; should cease work at . r > p.m.; should have 

 a half holiday on Saturday, aud entire holiday on 

 Sunday, as though they were field bands. Having a 

 wife and a family of eight young children Mr. Martin 

 turned the matter over in his mind, aud decided that 

 under such conditions perhaps Sir Arthur Gordon was 

 right in saying : — " This is not a white man's country," 

 therefore he leaves it. It is to be hoped that Mr. 

 Simpson will be moie successful. He proposes to follow 

 the example of his neighbours, Messrs. McKinnon aud 

 Bariet, and grow tea. He has every natural advantage 

 in his favour, climate, soil, position, and if allowed to 

 succeed his success should be certain. 



Coriander Seed. — Messrs. W. H. Davies & Co. 

 write : — " In your last Commercial Letter from London, 

 the writer refers to Coriander Seed, and says he does 

 not recollect having heard of this article of import 

 from Londou. It will interest him and perhaps 

 others to know that many shipments were made from 

 Ceylon to London in 18S3." 



Helopeltis and Other Pests. — A planting corre- 

 spondent writes : — ■' I think a great deal too much has 

 been, and is being, made of our enemies. This seeming 

 constant discovery of pests is doing more harm to Cey- 

 lon at home. I fear, than the whole of the pests put 

 together." We have already endeavoured to guard 

 against unwarrantable inferences among home capital- 

 ists and others from the constant discussion over pests 

 on new products in Ceylon. No branch of agriculture 

 is free from tronbles of this kind, and the country 

 where they are most discussed ought really to be the 

 safe one for investors as shewing that those concerned 

 are doing their best to study the nature of and 

 the remedies for such evils. 



Tea in Central Asia. — The efforts to introduce the 

 teas of India into the markets of Central Asia through 

 Yarkand and Ladakh do not seem to be approaching 

 much nearer to success. From the recent Report on the 

 external trade of the Punjab, it would appear that most 

 of the tea which finds its way from India to those re- 

 gions is actually Chinese tea which has been imported to 

 India by sea, and is then sent out again on its difficult 

 way through the ICarakorani or some other of the 

 northern passes. Through Kulu alone 184 maunds were 

 dispatched during the year, valued at R150 a maund ; 

 but the Central Asian palate which puts so high a value 

 on brick tea, ffola cha — tea, that is, made up into balls 

 with rice-water — and other abominations, retains a per- 

 verse indifference to the choicest leaf of Kaugra and 

 Kumaon. The sound but humiliating advice which is 

 offered to the Indian planter under these circumstances is 

 that he must study Chinese methods of manufacture, or 

 rather of adulteration, if he would seek the custom of 

 Central Asia ! — Pioneer. 



A cheap Rotating Tea Roasting Machine, a la 

 Gibbs & Barry, but simpler aud therefore far less 

 expensive, is noticed by the veteran Indian tea 

 planter, Mr. S. E. Peal, in a letter to the Indian Tea 

 Gazette, thus : — 



Small estates cannot make a " break " of p. or P. S, 

 or B. P., under a week, say 20 chests of each kind, we 

 should thus have to " Binn " our teas after sifting, and 

 tiual fire the break after bulking it. But 20 chests is 

 uow-a-divys too small, and 50 chests more what is wanted 

 by dealers. Now in a small estate making, say, 

 10 maunds per day, there are on an average some 40 

 chulas, or ."'0 at outside, and to pukka-bati 50 chests (or 

 6,000 lb) of B. P. (allowing 201b. to each tray or dhol 

 fire) needs 300 chulas ! and the work to be done at night, 

 or on off-days — as Sundays. But even let us say there 

 are 100 chulas in our tea house, it would need three days 

 to do the 6,000 lb. in, unless we stopped all our usual 

 work. So to bulk, final fire off, and pack hot, large lots, 

 or even moderate ones, of 50 or 00 chests, on small 

 estates, is impossible, with the drying facilities we usually 

 have, — dhols, chulas, typhoons, or siroccos. To get 50 

 or 60 chests, bulked, we should need to " Binn " our 

 teas daily as sifted, till we got our 6,000 lb., say, of one 

 class, and then have all out of bulk and final fire at once. 

 Properly we should fire first, and then bulk and pack 

 " all hot " after ; but our drying capabilities are generally 

 ten maunds tea per day (not 60.) It is no use recom- 

 mending siroccos— G and B at R4,000 or new Jackson's ; 

 we need a machine for small pockets and big breaks. 

 The ouly one I see at all likely is that patented by the 

 late J. Scott of Rajmai, ;'. «.; a rotating cylinder d la G 

 and B, but without all that costly girder and gea»ing, 

 and simply slung and driven by a wire rope from au 

 overhead pulley above one end. The fan drives cold air 

 through the fire, thereby having less than one-sixth the 

 work to do, and with cold bearings ; such a machine 

 small estates could buy, as it is ouly about R1,000, and 

 does fully as much as a G and B dryer, or new Jackson 

 and is as simple as cheap, and equal to 50 maunds a day. 



