5i° 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1885. 



thing in the shape of a coffee plant was eagerly bought 

 up with the result that the disease on emerging 

 from its habitat found a genial home en these 

 unhealthy plants and bo spread with rapid strides 

 till strong and healthy trees were unable to rtsist 

 the repeated attacks to which they were subjected. 



I also hold that the failure in cinchona is mainly 

 attributable to the same cause, bad seed and plants. 

 During the first 12 years that cinchona was grown in 

 Ceylon, canker was scarcely known and did little or 

 no apparent barm ; but in the four years subsequent to 

 1878 high prices of bark and short coffee crops induced 

 a rush into that product, and so great was the 

 demand for seed, especially officinalis, that it was 

 gathered from healthy, sickly and dying trees in the 

 most indiscriminate manner, the sequel being that 

 not more than 5 per cent had an existence of two 

 years. 



I would, therefore, warn those who in their anxiety 

 to plant large areas with tea have gathered aud are 

 still gathering seed from two and three year 

 old plants, of putting out plants from seed which 

 according to all natural lawB cannot produce healthy 

 vigorous trees and which (as in the case of coffee and 

 cinchona) may prove propagating-beds for whatever 

 disease or blight the tea plant may in the future 

 be afflicted by in the country. Would that your 

 remark " Once bitten twice shy " were universallj 

 adhered to, S. 



TEA AND ITS PESTS. 

 Mahadova, Lunugala, 24th Nov. 1884. 

 Dear Sir, — I forward by today's post some tea 



leaves which has just brought to me 



to see from his tea nurseries on . The 



disease looks like gall, but I cannot discover the eggs 

 or marks of any insect, and the pekoe tips and 

 immature leaf are principally affected. The excrescence 

 has a very bitter taste like the tea-seed proper, and 

 the appearance of some of the specimens is as though 

 the plant was uncertain whether to produce leaf or 

 seed,— I remain, yours faithfully, 



A. T. KAKSLAKE. 



[We referred the leaves to Dr. Trimeu, who writes:— 

 "Mr. Karslake sent me a packet of tea-leaves similar 

 to those sent you. I replied to his queries pretty 

 fully but have kept no copy of my letter. No doubt 

 the leaves show the work of a gall-fly, but the tu- 

 mours are too recently formed for the grubs to be 

 hatched yet. A somewhat similar gall is extremely 

 common on the leaves of jambu." — Ed ] 



THE FIBRE FROM THE SHOEFLOWER 

 HIBISCUS. 

 Kadienlena Esiate, Kotmale, 29th Nov. 1884. 



Dear Sir, — You are quite right : the fibre was the 

 produce oi the shoi flower [Hibiscus Rosasinensis) and, if 

 you have never tried it, I am sure you would be sur- 

 mized at the large quantity contained on a single stalk. 

 I have thought 0) it for a long time, bs the coolhs on a 

 Sunday used to come and cat a few stalks to bind their 

 firewood. 



At the price you mention £20 to £25 per ton, I think 

 it would leave a good margin for profit, as it grows 

 very freely. In taking off the bark I have noticed the 

 different degrees of quality : the inner bark beiug the 

 finest. A person couhl soon find out at what age it w ould 

 be most profitable to cut the stems. But we want a 

 machine to turn out clean fibre in payable quantities. 



Thanking you for your information, I remain, yours 

 faithfully, " . JAMES GRAY. 



[The sample sent to us is particularly strong and 

 promising. — Ei>.] 



ALOE FIBRE AND THE PATENT FIBRE 

 MACHINE. 



Matale, 2nd Dec. 1884. 



Dear Sir,— Can you kindly inform me whether 

 any experiments have been made on aloe leaves with 

 " Death & Ellwood'"s fibre extracting machine, re- 

 cently so favourably reported on from Madras and 

 Calcutta? and, if so, with what result? Have you 

 any idea of the cost of the machines? and can you 

 give_ me the address of any agent from whom I could 

 obtain information on the subject ?— Yours faithfully, 



ALOE FIBRE. 



[Messrs. Clark, Spence & Co , Galle, are Agents for 

 the General Fibre Company— see advertisement in the 

 T. A.— who own Death & Ellwood's machines. These 

 have done good work with aloe fibre in Southern India. 

 —Ed.] 



Utilization of Solar Heat.— Under this heading 

 a correspondent of the Pioneer writes :— The plauting 

 of trees cannot be carried out in all parts of the 

 country, nor in many would it be desirable ; but 

 that it should be perfectly feasible for an Indian planter 

 to erect an instrument which, by means of energy at 

 present running to waste, could be employed in raising 

 water from deep wells for irrigation purposes is an 

 advance on " the old method of planting trees and 

 burning the timber " which would be patent to most 

 people. 



Lifting and Root-Prunino Fruit Trees. — Root-prun- 

 ing can be safely resorted to where it would be most unwise 

 aud unsafe to have recourse to lifting, viz., with strong 

 vigorous trees of old standing. In such cases the only means 

 of bringing about fruitfulness is by root-pruning pure and 

 simple, forming a trench at a reasonable distance from the 

 bole, say 4 or 5 feet, and severing all thick roots which 

 come in the way. With very old trees, and to be on the 

 safe side, the work ought to be done gradually, doing half 

 way round the tree one year aud the remaining half the 

 following year. In digging the treuch a depth of from 2 to 

 3 feet will be found to be quite sufficient. But the oper- 

 ation does not end here ; something in the shape of under- 

 mining must be done in order to find out if there is a tap- 

 root, which must be severed. Having cut through all thick 

 roots, the only remaining work to be done is to pare off 

 all jagged ends and bruised roots with a sharp knife, aud 

 fill in with soil, treading it down as the work proceeds, 

 finishing off with a mulching of half-decayed stable manure 

 and a good watering to settle the soil about the roots. — 

 Journal of Horticulture. 



The Future of Tea.— The N. China HeraW, 

 in reviewing statistics of the Tndian tea-plwting 

 industry is rather hard on what are called " high- 

 flown prophetical utterances." Our contemporary ought 

 to look back over the history of our Ceylon enter- 

 prizc as some justification for the sanguine estimates 

 of the future: — " A Ceylon contemporary writing upon 

 thp Assam report, says that there are no doubt estates 

 which yield 4C0, 500 and even 61 pounds of tea an 

 acre, but these few and far between, and for a general 

 average 300 pounds is rather above than below the 

 mark. And it goes on to predict that before long 

 Ceylon will leave China far behind as to quality, 

 and run As am a close race as to quantity. That we 

 shall see when we shall see it. It is rather amusing 

 to read the high flown prophetical utterances of the 

 Indian and Ceylon papers regarding the future of the 

 tea trade, aud taking these with the exciting annual 

 competitors at Hankow and Foochow, it really seems 

 as if growing tea and dealing in it, proves that its 

 description, as that which does not intoxicate, was 

 founded on want of experience of the trade in all its 

 bunches," 



