March 2, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



68g 



and a good aud large labor start. To a small capitalist 

 who means to be his own "manager" a cocoa plantation 

 holds out greater temptations than a tea estate, and if 

 suitable land is secured, we see nothing to doubt the 

 investment being a safe, besides a long lasting one. 



Of dry nibs for export we saw scarcely a ton of it in 

 Kandy. A few heaps in the coffee boutiques, gathered 

 indifferently from native trees, was all we saw. In a place 

 said to have held in a day coffee worth R500.000, when 

 coffee was king, there was' only a cwt. to be had! There 

 is no cocoa locally prepared for consumption. One planter 

 tried it, but as the natives did not appreciate the drink, 

 the manufacture was given up. — Indian Hunters' Gazette. 



THE CACAO-BUG OF CEYLON. 



The note by Mr. Distant in your number for October 

 30 (p. 684)* may perhaps lead its readers to think that 

 the insect which has lately been the subject of a report 

 to the Ceylon Government has been wrongly identified by 

 me as Helopeltis antonii, Sign. As that report will, how- 

 ever, before this have reached England, the matter will 

 probably have been set right. I am not an entomologist, 

 nor have I here the opportunity of referring to Signoret's 

 original description or to other descriptive works ; but the 

 insect is, without any doubt at all, that which is well 

 known — too well known — in Assam and in Java as Helo- 

 peltis. In the former country it is the destructive tea- 

 bug or " mosquito-blight,"t and in the latter it is the 

 notorious pest of the cinchona plantations. 



As to the fragments which reached Mr. Distant, they 

 were apparently insufficient for identification, further than 

 with the family Seduviida. The cacao-tree harbours a host 

 of Hemiptera, and planters are very apt to confound the 

 innocent with the guilty. Its only formidable enemy in 

 this order of insects, however, so far as I have seen, is 

 the Helopeltis. — Henry Thimkv, Royal Botanic Garden, 

 l'eradeniya, Ceylon. — Nature. 



RUBBER AND ITS USES. 



I 'ommon wooden trunks are rendered waterproof by being 

 covered with gum-elastic materials. 



Rubber ivory aud whalebone are particularly suitable for 

 water or spirit levels, on account of their solidity and 

 their not being liable to warp or crack. 



Levelling rods when moulded of rubber may be made 

 hollow and light and without a tendency to warp or spring 

 as when made of wood. Like scales aud rules, they are 

 graduated in moulds when vulcanised, 



Sri' luon dressing boxes may be cheaply manufactured 

 of rubber ivory instead of fiue wood, and when desired 

 r.1.1 be nnde with a soft surface of artificial gum-elastic 

 up" 1 th' ivory to make them resemble such as have been 

 commonly covered with morocco. 



1; vniiscj aud flesh gloves are made of knit goods or 

 elastic compound with a sheet of elastic tufted sponge 

 cemented to the face of the glove. They answer the ordinary 

 purposes of a flesh brush, aud are made superior to bristle 

 brushes for bathing, as they are not softened by being 

 saturated with water. 



Gum-Elastic vellum and tissue are cheap aud durable 

 materials for the manufacture of banners and flags, not 

 being liable to damage from wet. Fringes and tassels for 

 them may be made of gum-elastic cord spun and twisted 

 while the gum is soft, with the same facility as common 

 thread. 



Rubber ivory has long been recognised as well adapted 

 to the manufacture of the cases of musical boxes, because 

 of its elasticity and durable properties, and the facility 

 with which it is moulded and ornamented. 



Expansive «ork is made of gum-elastic compound with 

 a screw of metal or rubber whalebone passing through it. 

 Turning the screw compresses or enlarges the cork and 

 makes it fast. Reversing the screw allows it to be drawn. 

 — Indiarubher and Guttapercha Journal. 



* See T. A., p. 517.— Ed. 



f Since my report was written, Mr. Wood-Masou's short 

 treatise on the tea-bug has reached us here. 



87 



THE JAPANESE NATIVE TEA DEALERS. 

 The Meiji Nijipo publishes a curious compact which lias 

 been agreed upon by all the influential native tea dealers 

 of Yokohama. Some of the foreign firms of the port, so 

 it is alleged, have hitherto made a practice of declaring, 

 that the tea they receive is inferior to the sample, and 

 of beating down the price of th.' dealers mi this pretext. 

 One firm, the name of which we do not publish, appears 

 to have specially excited the indignation of the dealers, 

 who have agreed upon the following covenant :—" The hrm 

 at No. — invariably make, on some pretext, and in ai op- 

 pressive manner, a reduction of ii per cent in the price 

 of tea delivered to them. This is done even when the 

 goods do not in the least differ from the sample, the re- 

 duction for dust beiug as much as 2 per cent. In addition 

 to this, the tea when weighed by them undergoes a great 

 decrease in weight. It is beyond doubt that transactions 

 with a firm of such vicious principles involve us in great 

 lc,s<. Such being the case, we hereby agree to suspend 

 business with the firm in question, in testimony of whi h 

 we sign and seal our names below. Should the firm live 

 up the practice, this agreement will be annulled." 'We 

 cannot tell how much or how little truth there may b 

 in this report, but if the offending firm is really gui ty 

 of such practices, the remedy adopted by the Japanese is 

 proper, and will, doubtless, prove effectual. The strange 

 part of the business is, that any covenant should be necess- 

 ary. Elsewhere, a firm comporting itself in the manner 

 described, would lose its business without any recourse to 

 pacts or combinations on the part of its customers. But 

 the peculiar ideas educated by the guilds of 'anti -Restor- 

 ation days evidently survive still in the breasts of Japanese 

 merchants. Either the relations between the local foreign 

 buyer, and the Japanese seller must be placed on a dif- 

 ferent footing, or the former's functions will gradually 

 disappear. Under the present system the inducements of the 

 producer and the preparer to be honest and painstaking are 

 of the remotest possible description, and the staple is 

 heavily taxed by the necessity of undergoing.at the open 

 ports, processes which ought to be performed, at half the 

 cost and with twice the advantage, at the place of pro- 

 duction. It is all verywell to say, " leave the Japanese to 

 discover the cost of direct trade for themselves. Bitter 

 experience will force, them back to the old grooves." So 

 long, however, as commerce in the two principal staples is 

 encumbered by conditions which offer a premium for 

 emancipation from foreign agency at the open ports, so long. 

 we may be sure, will the present, impulse continue to be 

 effective, and so long, also, will there be encouraged among 

 the Japanese that spirit of injurious combination, an ex- 

 ample of which has suggested the above remarks. Javan 

 Weekly Mail. ' 



RUBBER NOTES FROM THE REPORTS OF 

 BRITISH CONSULS. 



Rio de Janeiro.— According to Mr. Consul Picket's 

 report on the trade and commerce of Rio de Janeiro 

 for the year 1882, a large trade was carried on in India- 

 rubber, the average export of which from all the 

 ports of Brazil, for the five years 1S77-7.X to 1881-82 was 

 valued at 11,886,640 milreis. The value of the Indiarubher 

 exported to Great Britain increased from £879,409 sterling 

 in 1878, to £1,460,219 sterling, in 1882, and in the latter 

 year the total exports of all kinds to Great Biitain were 

 computed at_ £6,945,713 sterling, so that it will be sen, 

 that rubber is an important article of export. 



Paha.— Para rubbi r has attained a high reputation for 

 quality and utility, and it is interesting to note that, ai 

 cording to the latest Consular report ( for the years 

 1879-82) on the trade aud commerce of the province iu 

 Brazil from which it takes its name— by Mr. Consul Green 

 —the production has continued to increase. Tin quantity, 

 which amounted to 4.794 tons in l,s70. r^se to 6.747 tons 

 in IS?.",, to 8,575 tons in 1880, 8 '7,6 tons in 1881, and 

 9,62 1 tons in 1882. Consequently, the increase in twelve 

 years has been 4.8.30 tons, and in value 19,528,000^000 

 or about £1,749,011 13s. 4d. Indiarubher is the chief article 

 of export, and owing to the high prices which it com- 

 mands in the principal consuming markets, it has been the 

 means of a great impulse being given to the trade of the 

 province. The immigration of the Cearenses has been very 



