6 3 6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [February t, 1885, 



lay of land especially, in easy rolling mounds and 

 sheltered valleys, plenty of sunshine and moisture and 

 very decent soil for tea. And vet it must be very hard 

 on proptietors to sacrifice the growth of years in 

 vigorous looking coffee. 



Not till we had passed through Hum- 

 phreys'* Gap, — did we see such groves of cinchona 

 as would warrant the expectation of heavy harvest- 

 ing and exports to equal those of last season. I 

 agree with Mr. Talbot, that to the passing traveller at 

 least there is not much evidence of tea planting : the 

 covering of coffee seems to leave no room for anything 

 else : but no doubt many fields are to the proprietor 

 mure valuable for the young plants now rising under 

 shelter than for the showy bushes shortly to be 

 sacrificed. Higher up in the valley of the Dimbul- 

 dauda, we heard of pluckings of tea which indicate 

 heavy flushes and all the rush associated with crop 

 time ; while in the neighbourhood of Nuwara Eliya 

 bark is being harvested at the rate of half a ton a day. 

 As for Nuwara Eliya itself, the place is surely 

 at its best on such a day as this : — a cloudless sky, 

 bright sun, and pleasant breeze ; all nature refreshed 

 by recent rains which again have filled Gregory Lake 

 to add beauty and contrast to the everlasting hills 

 with their diversified "verdure. Autumn tints there 

 are in abundance ; the air at times is redolent with 

 the scent of violets ; the gorse is in full bloom ; 

 beds of geraniums and rosea vie with fuchsias and 

 petunias in nearly every cottage garden, and here 

 indeed while you are being scorched or melted in 

 Colombo we have a bit of Europe smiling in tropical 

 Asia. 



♦ 



CEYLON UPCOUNTRY • PLANTING REPORT. 



THE ROMAN-DUTCH LAW AND LOCAL INVENTORS— 1HE 

 SIROCCO TEA DRIER— THE AMERICAN EVAPORATOR FOR CACAO 

 — CEYLON AS A PRODUCER OE TEA MACHINERY— COFFEE 

 GIVING PLACE TO TEA— COFFEE A RARITY. 



19th Jan. 1885. 



I was hearing that the Roman-Dutch law, that laby- 

 rinth amidst whose mazes the soul of Judge Ber- 

 wick has for many years wandered, deals very kindly 

 With all looal inventors. It is said to come in handy 

 regarding a tea roller of native manufacture, which 

 was threatened with having to give an account of 

 itself for injuring the patent rights of another. 

 Anything like restriction of trade has always been 

 viewed by the jurist with a jealous eye, aud the 

 Roman-Dutch law-givers have, it is said, that eye very 

 wide open indeed. This is just as it should he, for 

 what the colony wants is not that one man should 

 have a monopoly say of a particular motion of a machine 

 but that the best machines should come to the front, 

 and that there should be a fair field and no favour. 

 Of course the inventive genins of a man ought to be 

 rewarded and his machine protected if he has deemed 

 it worthy «f a patent, but not in such a way as to 

 throttle the invention of others. 



Talking of tea machinery reminds me that Barna- 

 galla has erected a No. 3 Sirocco, and that it is giving 

 complete satisfaction. It is questionable if tea can 

 get burnt in this machine ; anyhow it has the merit 

 of turning out a regular sample, is easily worked and 

 quickly learned. 



The American Evaporator is proving a success re- 

 garding cacao, and may yet become a very common 

 machine on estates whose acreage of this new product 

 will not allow of anything more expensive. It would 

 not take very long to pay itself in a wet season, if 

 there be such a difference in price as I was hear- 

 ing of between bad and good cured nibs. Cacao which 

 had to be washed in wet weather, and which could 



* Humphreys' : it is on Ritnagerrie estate. — Ed. 



not be dried for want of heat, brought R15 a cwt. 

 as against R42 of that which had the weather in 

 its favour. 



I hear of several people who are dabbling in new 

 tea driers, but with what success I have not learnt. 

 If the thing is to be done— that of getting Al. tea 

 machinery— depend upon it Ceylon will be well to the 

 front ere long. We don't take much pride in the 

 inventions of other folks ; and as Ceylon coffee 

 machinery has always held the first rank in coffee- 

 producing countries, I have no fear but that the 

 traditions of the past will be handed on, and that 

 in tea driers, rollers, sifters and such like, the Ceylon 

 make will not take a second place. 



On old coffee estates, the trees in many places 

 are being knocked down to give place for tea. Ere 

 lung the Old King will be a curiosity, where formerly 

 be held such an extensive sway. Why, I was hear- 

 ing of a planter who had the mana grass in his estate 

 set on fire, which tire rau into a little coffee and 

 burnt it. A claim was made for damages on the 

 ground that coffee wa3 becoming such a rarity now 

 that it had to be carefully conserved, and could not 

 now be burnt with impunity ! Well it is that coffee 

 preceded tea, for as one said tome there was a kind 

 of providence iu it : tea is willing to grow where 

 coffee won't, but, if it had been the tea which had 

 failed, it is very questionable indeed if coffee would 

 have succeeded so well as a second fiddle. 



Pepper Corn. 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE IN NORTHERN 

 AUSTRALIA. 



The oolony misnamed South Australia possesses, 

 equally with the neighbouring colony of Queensland, 

 a northern territory which is tropical in climate. 

 But the policy of the two countries has curiously 

 diverged. Both began by offering premia on 

 experiments with tcopical produce, and South 

 Australia consistently followed up this offer by ar- 

 ranging with the Indian Government for the intro- 

 duction of Indian cooly labour, Major Fergusson being 

 despatched on a mission to India to arrange the 

 matter. A bill for the same purpose passed the Queens- 

 land Legislature, bat under the influence of a white 

 working man's ministry and parliament, the law has 

 recently been repealed, '(his was done just as the 

 suepply of South Sea labour began to fail, and the 

 grat sugar industry which gave remunerative employ- 

 ment to large numbers of whites is now threatened 

 with utter ruin. This, after five millions of capital had 

 been embarked in the enterprize, with an annual ex- 

 penditure of £500,000. Northern Queensland possess- 

 ing conditions far more favorable to tropical cultiv- 

 ation than the northern territory of South Australia, 

 is thus placed in a most disadvantageous position, 

 and no one can wonder that there is a cry for 

 separation. All tropical Australia, in truth, ought to 

 be governed by Lieut.-Goveruors or Superintendents 

 and largely on Crown colony principles. Although it 

 is legal to introduce Indiau coolies to South Australia, 

 few or none have actually been introduced, and our 

 readers will see that the experiment of coffee, cacao and 

 cinchona culture, initiated by Mr. H. Poett, formerly 

 a planter in Ceylon (assisted by Mr. Farquhar Mac- 

 I; in, mi, also a cidevaiit Oeylon planter), is apparently to 

 meet the fate of the sugar-growing experiment on 

 De Lissa plantation. To sugarcane there, we heard 

 the " white-ants " (termites) were terrible enemies. 

 The sugar land seems to have been, in any case, badly 

 selected. There is no such statement regarding Mr. 

 Poett's " Rum Jungle," but the Adelaide shareholders 



