December i, 1884.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



495 



The Gibbs & Barry drier works with a mixture of air 

 ami gases from a coke or charcoal fire, and therefore com- 

 pares with the No. 4 and 5 siroccos. 



Outturn per hour of Cost f . o. b. 

 perfectly dried tea. England. 

 Gibbs & Barry's largest size 

 drier doing about 24 maunds 

 three-quarter-dried leaf per hour, 

 or, as per the tabulated statistics 

 quoted in their pamphlet, for 



perfectly dried tea, about ... 1J maund £275 



The No. 4 Sirocco .1 » 



5 Sirocco ... 2 maunds £ 95 



It should also be borne in mind that both the 

 Kindmond and Gibbs & Barry driers require motive 



fower to create and maintain the draft, which in the 

 irocoo is self-acting. — Yours faithfully, 



W. H. DAVIES & Co. 



SUGAR IN CEYLON; PORTUGUESE WORDS 

 IN SINHALESE. 

 Choisy, Ramboda, 6th Nov. 1SS4. 



Sir, — I have to thank you for your answer to my 

 inquiry ahout the ancient name for sugar. It so 

 happens that an article is already in the press for 

 the Orient IM having for its subject the Portuguese 

 adaptations by the Sinhalese language ; and 1 was 

 at tbe moment of your writing tracing out the word 

 in common use for sugar— ' sini.' As it will appear 

 in the second part of the article I will only say 

 here that sini is the Tamil for China, and ' sloi 

 saikkarai' has been abbreviated so ae to have lost the 

 'sugar' altogether, for which the 'China' stands sub- 

 stituted.* 



Your correspondent, who wants to know where 

 ' rattala, ' a pound-weight, comes from, will find it in 

 Portuguese arratel. Any assistance in this connection 

 offered me by Ob-erver correspondents will be thank- 

 fully accepted. — Yours faithfully, 



EDMUND WOODHOU8E. 



WHITE-ANTS ATTACKING LIVING TEA 

 BUSHES. 

 Ratnapura, 7th November 1884. 



Dear Sir, — A short time back a paragraph appeared 

 in the Observer doubting the probability of white-nuts 

 attacking living tea shrubs. I have seen it (tea) eaten 

 (while green) by white-ants both in Dolosbage and this 

 district, and by this post send a sp'Cimen which 1 

 pulled up a few days ago. as it may have a conclusive 

 effect. It was full of while-ants at the time. You will 

 notice the stem has been perforated to its extremity, 

 and nearly all the branches the same, yet the plant 

 only betrayed the damage done very slightly : to a 

 casual passer-by little or no difference would have been 

 noticed from the surrounding bushes. Query for 

 savants : why only the low-class hybrids appear to he 

 the ones attacked? — Hoping you enjoyed your holiday, 

 yours very truly, L. 



[Our correspondent has not observed, that, apart from 

 its being mentioned long ago in our columns how 

 much trouble Assam planters have with white-ants, 

 there was a paragraph recently describing the serious 

 evil white-ants are proving in a lowcountry district 

 in the Katnapura direction. We learn, too, lliat white- 

 ants have been found attacking tin living tea as high 

 up as 2,500 feet above sea-h-vel in Ambagamu'wa. 

 The strange fact is that young coffee has never been so 

 attacked, and yet tea is supposed to he the hardier 

 plant. There must be something therefore in the tea 

 plant, its wood or pith favourable to the development 



* Similar losses are found in English, e.g., Turkey (origin 

 ally Turkey fowl), damson (i.e. Damascene [plum] ), and 

 this very word China, originally China-ware. — Ed/ 



of the formic acid peculiar to the white-ant. An 

 analytical chemist ought to be able to throw some light 

 on this circumstance. We cannot think that the class 

 whether China, hybrid or indigenous, makes any 

 difference to the white-ant : it must be chance prox- 

 imity rather that accounts for particular attacks.— 

 Ed.] 



EXPERIMENTS IN CACAO AND TEA 

 PLANTING. 



Maria, 15th Nov. 1S84. 



Dear Sir,— I will have something more to say 

 about cacao, when and how to manure and what 

 manure are most suitable in different soils, &c. 



Tea.— I have been quietly experim-nting with tea, 

 that is to give body to tea by cultivation, and I find 

 it can be done. In the first place, it will be necessary 

 to distinguish tea bushes from which good strong tea 

 has been manufactured ; then take some of the raw 

 leaves from these bushes, chew them, do so daily until 

 you can tell by the taste a_ good leaf at once ; note 

 also the colour of the leaves. After you are well 

 acquainted with the taste of the leaves that make 

 good strong tea, then only taste other leaves and you 

 will know by tbe different taste which is deficient, 

 and so can nourish the tea bushes with such manures 

 or other treatment as you may find necessary. 



(1) It is well-known where shoots grow too rapid 

 the leaves will not make a stronrj tea ; in rich soil 

 and a wet climate, bushes should be allowed to grow 

 as high and spread as much as po-sible; even some 

 of the roots may be n quired to be cut off, or bleeding 

 of "terns mny be necessary. 



(2) In rich soil and fair climate, tea will want but 

 Utile help. 



(3) Where soil is poor in a wet climate you would 

 have to add manure— quautity and quality must be 

 found out by the tasting of the leaves. Hushes must 

 lie kept loner and dram close ; in a dry district, make 

 trenches, cheaper and better than terracing. - Yours 

 ti'"'y> J. HOLLO ( VAY. 



" THE PARADISE FOR LE4F": LEAVES STRIK- 

 ING IN THE FIELD. 

 Galleheria, Mi.dulkele, 15th Nov. 1884. 



Dear Sir, — The enclosed was found growing in a 

 tea-field here pruned about two mouths since. Is it 

 possible that the leaf has struck? It looks very like 

 it. I can see no trace of there having been a stem, 

 above the leaf. Knowing the interest you take in 

 our new product, I thought you might like to eee 

 it. — Yours faithfully, M. U. THOMAS. 



[Mr. Thomas encloses a single tea-leaf with a good long 

 root; huta "struck" leafis no uncommon sight in Ceylon, 

 and, when ciucbonas were very precious at the time 

 of the rush into planting, several planters began beds 

 for striking from leaves as well as cuttings.— Ed.] 



,'ACAO PODS FROM THE PRR.ADENIYA 



GARDENS: CONTKADICTION OP THE 



STATEMENT THAT UNRIPE PODS 



ARE SOLD. 



Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya 19th Nov. 18*4. 



Sir, — Under the heading of "Advice to Young 

 Cacao Growers'' (page 47S), a correspondent goes 

 out of his way to record that he "had no 

 difficulty in at once pronouncing" some pods of 

 caeao sold from the Gardens to a native gentle- 

 man to be "not ripe enough for planting." The 

 writer of this piece of impertinence (I "use the 

 word in its proper grammatical sense) describes him- 

 self as " a practical man,"* and it may be supposed 

 gives the story as a sample of his acuteness in his 

 business. 



