788 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1883. 



want to know the worst about their bread aud butter. 

 Anyhow it's a comfort to think that tea may take 

 away attention from cardamoms. I really would 

 advise ynu to go in for tea. Don't bother with card- 

 amoms when you have such a fine thing on. There 

 is nothing like concentrating your energies (printer ! 

 rise to the occasion ) ! Aberdonensis. 



P. S.— The account of the P. A. meeting to hand. 

 The Chairman being an unpractical man, the proceed- 

 ings take that turn invariably, I think. Mr. Talbot, 

 now that he has got Peradeniya as a breakfasting 

 station, weeps over his whisky. A practical man 

 would buy up a stock before the price rises. If 

 Ceylon be a " paternal " nt, Governjiethe planters 

 certainly are rather assertive children. What fun all 

 the talk; about not being asked whether or not they 

 objected to be taxed before Government passed tho 

 obnoxious ordinances. Elphinstone's manly, though 

 rather incoherent, defence of the Governor snows that 

 the Chairman and Talbot had not it all their own 

 way. The whole meeting was a mistake. A public 

 meeting should have been called, and then a variety 

 of eloquence might have been experienced. I see old 

 Sproule of Badulla has come to Kandy. He was the 

 planter's proctor and a popular genial man. He must 

 have made comparisons between the old Badulla meet- 

 ings where James Uva was Chairman, and George 

 Wharton Brown Secretary, and the other fellows came 

 to fill up the room, make calls, do some shopping, 

 and, after cricket, gailop home over the paddy-fields. 

 What a lot of Badulla men have gone since then ! 

 Hinck the comedian, Linton the patriarch, Geordie 

 Morris the ancient partiarch, Old Wood of the old 

 school, Watt and his long beard, and many others 

 are all gone to their old home ! Ceylon men ought 

 to be very scientific by this time. First there was 

 Phipsnn and his surface manuiiug. Then there came 

 Moutclar, Morris, Ward, Trimen, Schrottky, Storck, 

 and " VV." Then we had a lot of technicalities about 

 cambium and alkaloids and sulphates; and now 

 comes tea, and the talk takes an engineering turn, 

 and we hear all about rollers aud twisters and firers. 

 Well done, Ceylon, the undaunted and brave ! 



CHANKS AS ALLEGED DESTROYERS OF 

 PEARL SHELLS. 



The following article, interesting to us in Ceylon, 

 is from the Pioneer: — 



Mr. Thomas, the veteran fisherman of the Madras Pre- 

 sidency, has recently been investigating the pearl fish- 

 eries of Tuticonn with a view to their future improve- 

 ment. His report will no doubt be read by all lovers of 

 the pearl, nor would it be difficult to interest the ladies 

 of India ou behalf of the oyster in which it is embedded. 

 Mr. Thomas, however, has acted with doubtful wisdom 

 in attempting to vindicate the " chank " from the 

 charge of enmity to the pearl-oyster which has long 

 been brought against him. The "chank" (Turbinclla 

 jiyrecrn) it may bo stated is another shell-fish which 

 is often found near oyster-beds and is regularly fished 

 on account of its beautiful shell. He is strongly sus- 

 pected of eating the pearl-oyster, and so strong indeed 

 i.s the suspicion that the Secretary of State once ordered 

 his extermination. This terrible decision has not been 

 thoroughly cirried out, and the poor "chank" has 

 at list happily found so able an advocate as Mr. 

 Thomas to say a good word for him. The evidence 

 against him is partly circumstantial and partly as to 

 identity, and it is no doubt exceedingly damaging to 

 the general character of the " chank." In a fox- 

 huutiug country vermin are every day killed on much 

 less proof. In the first place the "chank" is carni- 

 vorous. There is no doubt ns to this ; his teeth 

 betray him. In the second place the "chank" has 

 a near cousin, "tho elephant chank," who has been 



found in such a position relatively to a dead oyster 

 as to make the conclusion that this relativity was the 

 cause of the oyster's demise unavoidable. If a shell- 

 fish is found curled round the corpse of another, and 

 the shell of the corpse is perforated in a vital part, 

 and the perforation could have been caused by the 

 lancet tongue of the circumjacent mollusc, any jury 

 would give a verdict of " wilful murder " against 

 the latter. And such is the case against the "elephant 

 chank." That the chank common should suffer from 

 the character of his elephant cousin is not surprising 

 But more than this, there is evidence that the chant 

 common has been caught in the act of eating an oyster. 

 This shows that he has no moral objection to oyster- 

 murder, and the only question is whether he is in 

 a position to commit it. Mr. Thomas argues that the 

 "chank" common is without the lancet tongue necess- 

 ary to perforate the oyster. He cannot get at the 

 delicacy while it lives, and must wait till it opens 

 in the act of death. He is the jackal or the ghoul 

 of the pearl-oyster bed, but not the murderer of living 

 oysters. Furthermore Mr. Thomas urges that the 

 oyster's home is the rock and the chank's home the 

 adjoining sand : that the chank rarely ever leaves his 

 home, and that the pearl-oyster need be in no dread as 

 long as he sticks to his own quarters. But Mr. Thomas' 

 vindication of the "chank" is by no means satis- 

 factory, as the admissions he has to make in the 

 course of the defence are extremely damaging to his 

 client's reputaion. Were we on our trial for homicide, 

 we should prefer the mercy of the Judge to the advocacy 

 of the First Member of the Madras Revenue Board 



♦ — ! 



The Value of the T. A. to Ceylon Estatk 

 Owners. — A correspondent writes :— " Teldeniya, 20th 

 March. — I think proprietors should supply every tea 

 estate with the T. A. The information in it with regard 

 to everything in connection with tea &o. is invaluable : 

 it would pay its value over and over again. Owners of 

 estates should not leave it to hard-up superintendents to 

 take it in." 



Tea Garden Companies' Report.— The Managing Agents 

 of the Singell Tea Co., La., have issued their Report for 

 last season's operations made up to 31st December; the 

 profit aud loss account shows a profit of R15,771-9-2' (in- 

 clusive of Rl.635-11-1 brought forward from last year) 

 which is equivalent to 2J per cent on the capital of 

 the Company. The total outturn for 1881 was 215,8001b 

 the whole of which was sold in Calcutta at an average 

 of annas 876 per lb nett. The crops suffered severely 

 both in quantity and quality from the last two successive 

 dry seasons ; 1883 was remarkable for its short rainfall 

 but 1884 showed a fall of 22 inches less than that, and 

 60 inches below the usual average on the estate; the 

 Manager however reports the Garden in fine order, and 

 no particular loss of soil from wash had been experienced. 

 — Indian Planters' Gazette. 



Kadugannawa, 20th March. — At last, after a verv 

 long and severe drought, we have had refreshing 

 rains, but, like Oliver Twist, we are unsatisfied and 

 want more. Wells are still dry, and streams no- 

 where ; but the face of Nature is cleaner and fresher, 

 grass is sprouting, blossom coming out, and man and 

 beast are happier for the pleasant change. Coffee 

 where there is wood is throwing out a fair blossom, 

 but, alas ! there is not much vitality left in old King 

 Arabica, and in this district, I fear, his days are num- 

 bered. Leaf-disease appears to have succumbed to 

 the dry weather in the meantime, and there is not 

 much black bug, but the mischief has been done, 

 and done irretrievably. Cacao has stood the drought 

 very well, and is blossoming. The " fly" can be kept 

 in check, and squirrels may in a measure be frightened 

 by powder and shot. The villagers are busy harvest- 

 ing their jgrain, and they appear fairly well satis- 

 fied, but there has been a good deal of distress 

 amongst theirt. 



