59° 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February 2, 1885. 



Voeleker felt compelled in common with three other 

 Professors to resign his post in 1862. 



It should be mentioned that, in 1855, he had 

 been appointed Chemist to the Bath aud West 

 of Eugland Society, and in 1857, upon the resignation 

 of the late Professor Way, he became also Chemist to the 

 Royal Agricultural Society, both of which posts he held 

 till the time of his death. 



Even upon leaving Cirencester and coming to London 

 he did not abandon his field experiments, but with the 

 assistance of old students and friends conducted them 

 simultaneously in various parts of the country, and, being 

 upon different soils and varying conditions of climate, 

 the results obtained were all the more useful for 

 comparison. Having established a laboratory at Salis- 

 bury Square, he devoted the whole force of a strong mind 

 to the development of the interests of Agricultural 

 Science, and the pages of the Society's Journal bear 

 witness to his great activity in this important field of 

 research. His reputation as a careful analyst and 

 thoroughly impartial chemist made his certificaie of the 

 greatest value in the eyes of manufacturers, while his 

 quarterly reports upon the analyses made for members of 

 the Agricultural Societies were the means of checking 

 the wholesale fraud and adulteration by which the un- 

 fortunate farmer was so often plundered in the early 

 days of the artificial manure trade. As a lecturer, Dr. 

 Vcelcker was very popular at the numerous meetings 

 of head farmers' clubs, and he was never more 

 in his element than when addressing an audience of 

 farmers, for, while imparting sound advice in plain, 

 unaffected language, he always managed to introduce 

 some amusing anecdotes by way of illustration. It 

 was one of his favourite axioms, that, if you wished to 

 obtain the confidence of farmers and lead them to 

 believe in eome new process which they did not 

 understand, you shoidd always first tell them some 

 things that they already did understand. The quality 

 which was perhaps pre-eminent in Dr. Voeluker's 

 character was that of caution, and he therefore seldom 

 committed himself to the expression of an opinion that 

 was not based on careful observation or practical, 

 experience, and, if he ventured to depart from this 

 custom, his advice was accompanied with a caution that 

 he was giving an opinion rather than stating a fact. 



A hard worker himself, he naturally expected those 

 animated with him should also be industrious as well 

 as accurate in their analytical work ; hence he preferred 

 to employ paid assistants rather thau avail himself of 

 the gratuitous help of pupils. But he had a great 

 objection to new faces in the laboratory, and 

 most of those who were privileged to be associ- 

 ated with him in his interesting work remained 

 for periods of from six to fourteen years 

 a statement which speaks for itself as to his being a 

 kind and considerate master, while it also indicates 

 that the honor had to be limited to a few. Since 

 1877 Dr. Voeleker had conducted systematic investig- 

 ations at the experimental farm at Woburu kindly 

 placed at the disposal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society by the Duke of Bedford, with a view of 

 testing in a different quality of soil the experiments 

 which for so many years have been carried on at 

 Kothamstead on the estate of Sir John Lawea. The 

 current number of the Society's Journal contains his 

 latest paper on the Chemistry of Ensilage, a subject 

 at the present time of great interest to the British 

 farmer. Some years since, he received the highest 

 scientific honor in having the Fellowship of the Royal 

 Society conferred on him. He was also Vice-Presid- 

 ent of the Chemical Society and of the Institute of 

 Chemistry, a juror e.f the Fisheries and Health Exhib- 

 itions, member of the Council of the British Dury 

 Farmers' Association and honorary member of the Agri- 

 Cultural Societies of Hanover and Vienna. At the close 

 of last December he had a stroke of paralysis and was 



granted six mouths' leave of absence from his official 

 duties, but, after two mouths' rest, his longing for 

 work made him disregard the advice of his friends 

 and he was again in harness. During the spring 

 and summer months he seemed much better though 

 he never quite recovered from his attack. 



In the autumn a change to the South of France 

 was tried, but the period of relaxation had come 

 too late, and the indications of general failure of 

 health rendered an immediate return home necessary 

 early in October. For two months he lingered, 

 bearing a painful illuess, with quiet resignation and 

 simple faith, surrounded with every attention 

 that a loving family and kind friends could afford. 

 His funeral, which took place at Kensal Green on, 

 the 11th December, was attended by members of 

 the learned Societies of London as well as by many 

 eading agriculturists who duriDg the Cattle Show 

 week are always in time. Dr. Voeleker was one of 

 the gentlest of men, and his simple unaffected 

 manners gained him many sincere friends, while there 

 are few ciuur, y homesteads where his death will not 

 be regarded as a national loss which it will be difficult 

 to replace. 



♦ 



TEA PLANTING AND THE LAND MORTGAGE 

 BANK OF INDIA. 



The following are extracts from the report to be presented 

 to the extraordinary half-yearly geueral meeting of share- 

 holders. 



The bauk's liability on its current debentures now stands 

 at £380,600, of which amount £49,360 is held by the bank, 

 leaving a liability to the public of £331,240. Our debent- 

 ure pliability to the public on December 31st, 1S83, was 

 £353,100. It has been decreased during the present year 

 by payment of drawn bonds to the extent of £21,860, and 

 it will be further reduced on January 1st next by payment 

 of drawn bonds to the extent of £10,440, thus placing it 

 at £320,800, as agaiust similar liability on January 1st, 1884 

 of £342, S60. No fresh debenture has been issued uor has 

 any drawn bond been reuewed during the year. During 

 1884 we have sold six small properties in the Bengal Presid- 

 ency for an aggregate of K47,750. 



Tea. — Sufficiently accurate data whereon to base a reli- 

 able conclusion as to the total quantity of the Indian tea 

 crop of 1884, or the shortfall in yield below the estimated 

 quantity, are not yet available. The yield from the Bank's 

 gardens iu the Darjeeiiug district will be somewhat in 

 excess of the estimated quantity, whilst the estimated 

 yield from the bank's estates in Assam will probably be 

 attained ; but the Bank's estates iu Cachar aud Sy'lhet 

 and at Kolabaree will show a shortfall to the extent 

 probably of about 1,800 maunds, or 144,00016. This 

 shortfall is attributed to the prevalence of unfavour- 

 able weather during the spring and early summer aggrav- 

 ated by attacks of blight and red spider, aud in the case 

 of Jalingah by the destructive winds aud hail storms to 

 which we referred in our last report, involving a shortfall 

 in yield of about 400 mauuds or 32,000 lb. The plant at 

 Jalingah has been carefully plucked aud judiciously dealt 

 with during the current season, and is reported to be in good 

 condition for yielding well in 1SS5. Although iu Assam 

 aud Darjeeiiug the Bank's gardens have made or exceeded 

 their estimates, the weather has not been favourable for the 

 making of good tea, and the run of leaf lias been deficient 

 both in sap and fine quality, Down to July our most experi- 

 enced managersin Darjeeling expressed theirinability to make 

 teas of the usual character from their plucked leaf, and there 

 has undoubtedly been throughout the season a general scarc- 

 ity of fine teas from this district. The latter consignments 

 from our Darjeeling lower division have, however, shown 

 considerable improvement both iu style and quality, several 

 invoices from Mpondakotee having realized sale averages 

 of Is Oil to Is 9d per lb., whilst the last sale of Nagri teas 

 produced an average of Is !>Jd per lb. Nagri was heavily 

 primed, over 150 acres during last cold weather, which 

 induced the plant to make new wood freely, and though a 

 large quantity of leaf was plucked it was inferior in 

 strength aud quality from a weakeued flow of sap to the 



