5 88 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February 2, 1885. 



xpectations of the most sanguine shareholder. The Li- 

 berian coffee in India bears but 2 crops in 3 years — here 

 it is flowering tho whole year. The IS months old trees 

 on the estate are loaded with fruit, and I understand the 

 average yield from 5 year old trees is IS lb. of dry parch- 

 ment coffee yearly. The trees are planted 10 feet by 10 

 feet apart, which gives about 400 trees per acre, and if 

 this result is obtained from i'.OO acres, (tho proposed area 

 to be opened) it is easy to understand that tho estimated 

 crops and marvellous tales one hears are rather underrated 

 than overstated. There are most important questions that 

 will at once strike the Coylon planter — viz. are the fore- 

 mentioned results likely to continue, or will the " leaf" 

 11 BugV and poverty of soil, eventually prove too strong 

 for the plaut. Taking them in their reverse order, the 

 poverty of the soil is I think decided by the fact that 

 there is no natural soil, and as long as it can be artifi- 

 cially produced and used as before stated, there is no fear 

 on this point. It has been conclusively proved that Li- 

 berian coffee at least can stand " leaf " disease to a very 

 great extent, and the last "bugbear of the planter is not 

 known in the island; and in a light gravelly soil such jis 

 we have here, with hot sunny days throughout the year 

 it is not likely to be introduced; besides, there is a re- 

 medy for " Bug" even if it should appear. It must be 

 borne iu mind that we are dealing with Liberian, and 

 not Arabic : the market value of the former is not so 

 high as the latter by nearly 20 per cent, still the firm 

 believers in the larger berry assert as soon as it becomes 

 known at home, a demand will be readily created, aud 

 the price will reach and probably exceed that now given 

 for the smaller, and, to my mind, more aromatic berry. 

 This may be so, but time alone can show. One thing is 

 certain, prices may go down to half their present low 

 quotations. Get but 91b. per tree per annum, there will 

 qe a very fair result shown. Labor is another question 

 that presents itself to planters from India and Ceylon ; 

 the former probably does obtain labor at least 30 per cent 

 cheaper than here, but then the means of transit from the 

 plantation to the Coast (in many cases 100 to 150 miles) 

 by means of country carts, would equalize the labor ques- 

 ithn. Then, again, the hours here for labor are at least 

 toree hours longer than we can get from our coolies in 

 India, and this alone would cover the 30 per cent ; so in re- 

 ality one does not pay more, as would appear at first sight but 

 actually gains. Taking these two factors, "Coolies and Tran- 

 sit," we find the cost of production less than that in Ceylon 

 and India. Ubique. 



— Straits Times. 



THE TURBINE AVATER-WHEEL. 



Since its introduction into use, first in France, and 

 then in the United States, the turbine water-wheel has 

 appeared under many different forms, but none has met 

 with so marked success aud so fully met all the re- 

 quirements demanded of a motor of this class as the 

 one invented and manufactured by Messrs. James Leffel 

 .V Co., of Springfield, Ohio. This turbine, which is a 

 double one, is very different from all that class that 

 makes pretensions to be double wheels. In it we find a 

 combination of two independent sets and kinds of 

 buckets— one a vertical and the other a central discharge 

 — each very different from the other in its principle of 

 action upou the water, yet each receiving its water from 

 the same set of guides at the same time. The water, 

 however, is acted upon but once, jsince half the quantity 

 admitted by the guides passes to one wheel, and the 

 other half to the other one, the water leaving both 

 wheels or sets of buckets at the same moment aud as 

 quickly as possible. These two sets of buckets are so 

 combined as to form really but one wheel, both being 

 cast in one piece and being mounted upon one shaft. 

 Owing to this arrangement, there is admitted the greatest 

 volume of water possible, consistent with its economical 

 use, to a wheel of any given size, while, at the same 

 time, the greatest area for the escape of water is se- 

 cured. The surface of the wheel is thus reduced 0. a. 

 minimum as compared with the quantity of water used, 

 the material loss due to friction being avoided. The 

 water is admitted to the turbine by twelve vertically-set 

 guides, which serve likewise as water-gates, they being 

 do arranged that they can oscillate upon pivots ' plactd 



near their centres. These pivots are secured in the 

 plates between which the guides oscillate, the upper one 

 of these constituting the covering of the wheel and 

 supporting the upper end of the water wheel shaft 

 through a sleeve aud bush. The lower plate serves as 

 a support for the lower end of the shaft and as a means 

 of carrying away the water from the wheel to the tail- 

 race. These plates aud guides, as a whole, form a 

 casing for the wheel, the water having no entrance except 

 through tho guides, when desired to operate upon the 

 wheel. 



Such, in brief, is the principle of the Leffel turbine, 

 which recently has received certain important modific- 

 ations and additions that still further increase its effi- 

 ciency, and make it practically perfect. Iu fact, the 

 durability of the wheel and casing is such that the entire 

 amount of repairs called for at the large shops of the 

 firm per annum is covered by a sum so small, in view 

 of the fact that over 8,000 wheels are in operation, as 

 to be scarcely worthy of estimation. The firm has, 

 within a few years past, so arranged and systematized 

 its process of manufacture that if any part of a wheel 

 becomes broken through accident ic can be at once dupli- 

 cated on receipt of the necessary information. In short, 

 the Leffel turbine has kept pace, from its first introduc- 

 tion, with the most advanced developments of mecl.auical 

 science ; and, for any purpose for which the power of 

 water is employed, it may be safely guaranteed as having 

 no equal in utility, economy, and durability. Its popul- 

 arity aud the greatly increasing demand for it have 

 compelled the house to erect new and extensive works, 

 fitted throughout with the most approved and expensive 

 labour-saving machinery, especially made for audadnpted 

 to the proper manufacture of the various parts of the 

 turbine. The firm is thus enabled to produce the wheel 

 at the very lowest possible cost. 



We would recommend those of our foreign readers 

 who are interested in such subjects to address the house 

 for a copy of its " Wheel Book," manual which is re- 

 garded by users of water-power as Almost indispensable, 

 since it gives a full description of the apparatus, along 

 with other information of the greatest utility. — Scientific 

 American. 



PLANTING IN THE PROVINCE OP COORG : 



CLERK OF COORG WEATHER — ADAPTATION TO CIRCUM- 

 STANCES — HIGH CULTIVATION. 



Mercaka, December. — Ever since the famine year a new 

 hand has been at the weather taps. It was not possible to 

 keep ou the old clerk of the weather after the fiasco of 

 1876-77, so he was deposed. The new incumbent is very 

 zealous, but he is always trying experiments. JSo two years 

 have been alike in its seasons since his reign. He gave us a 

 deluge the year before last, and got into trouble about it. 

 This year he tried a very mild monsoon, that threatened a 

 famine, aud then got nervous at the grumbling, and turned 

 on the south east monsoon tap too strong, and thus 

 flooded the country.* He seems still " irresolute," aud keeps 

 turning the tap on and off when he should shut off for good, 

 and allow our weeds to die down, aud our crops to ripen. 

 Let us hope he will regain his composure soon. Fortunately 

 our blossom showers were late, so our crops will be late also, 

 which gives us time to carry on our war agaiust weeds. It 

 is wonderful how planters are adapting themselves to 

 circumstances. When prices fell and advances were cut 

 down to (iu some eases) absuredly low figures, the unfortun- 

 ates were in despair and said : " AVhat can we do with 

 such small advances ; it was as much as we could do to get 

 through with what we got last season." It is astonishing, 

 however, Jiow planters have found out, when they have set 

 to work to it, how many works, and what amount of estab- 

 lishment which were hitherto considered indispensable, can 

 be reduced and done away with. What a lot of fads have 

 been knocked on the head ; what a lot more real work a 

 coolie can do ; how much more reasonable are maistries, 

 contractors and other blood-suckers ; how delightfully slow 

 t lie game of shell-out is going ! A hundred rupees goes now 

 wdiere a thousand rupees would go last year. 



I saw iu the Mail that a planter in the Madulsima dis- 

 trict in Ceylon had sent a specimen branch of new coffee 

 to the Editor of the Ceylon Obet /r<r, who remarks that it 



* North-east~?^ErZ 



