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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[May i, 1885. 



The Agriculture and Arts Association of Ontario 

 have awarded Messrs. J. P. William & Bros, a diploma 

 for their seeds, spices, etc., exhibited at the expos- 

 ition at Toronto through Mr. E. R. Stimson. 



The T, A. — "The Superintendent of an Estate on 

 which many experiments are tried '.' writes to sup- 

 port the opinion that absent proprietors or their agents 

 would do well to supply as part of the office 

 furnishing on each plantation, a complete set cif tho 

 Tropical Agriculturist for ready reference on every 

 possible topic connected with estate management. 



Tea Driers. — At a time when special attention 

 is likely to be given to this subject through the 

 presence of Mr. Jackson in our midst, the experi- 

 ments of Mr. C. A. Hay with Siroccos reported 

 elsewhere will be carefully considered. At present, 

 Ceylon planters on the whole favour such driers rather 

 than those tbat make a demand on motive power to 

 drive a fan or otherwise distribute heat. The greater 

 cheapness of Siroccos is also in their favour. ■■ First 

 cost " is a great bugbear with the struggling Ceylon 

 planter, even though terms are made easy by the 

 scheme for ' ' deferred payments " adopted by local 

 firms. 



Coffee Leaf Fungus. — Udapussellawa, 23rd March, 

 — There are indications of the approach of the little mon- 

 soon early. The seasons are keeping up their character of 

 being out of joint. I am going to send to Marshall Ward 

 a few specimens of leaf-disease. I should like to bear 

 from him, how the ift V. looks now, both inside the 

 leaf and out. I believe the microscope will reveal 

 great changes and that Marshall Ward will scarcely 

 recognize the old friend he diagnosed so long and 

 carefully. [Our correspondent's observation goes to 

 show that a great change has come over the cofl'ee- 

 leaf-fungus : it is no longer healthy. — Ed.] Let us 

 hope that in time we will have healthy coffee as well as 

 luxuHant fields of tea. 



Panwila and Wattecjama, 24th March. — We had 

 some good heavy rain which has brought out and 

 is btill bringing out more blossom on all good cultivated 

 coffee ; it will also help on our tea and oaeao plants 

 which have stood tho dry weather very well, and will 

 soon bring out a blossom on our large cacao. We have a 

 spler.did ohmate for and have no wind to injure tea 

 or c.reao. Tea has been proved at three years old 

 to give over the 400 pounds made tea per acre, and is 

 of good strength. We have also some fine cinchona 

 in our district, especially on Raxawa estate near 13th 

 milepost : i,here was a time when some critics thought 

 this estate would not grow oinchona: let them now come 

 and see what a stitch iu time has done — they wdl 

 have to go far before they find fiuer cinchona. 



Gas Tar as a Preservative of Health. — The serious out- 

 break of cholera with which France has recently been 

 visited has caused inquiry to be made as to the extent 

 to which persons engaged in particular manufactuing oper- 

 ations enjoy immunity from or are rendered more suscept- 

 ible to the attacks of epidemic disease. It has been known 

 almost ever since the establishment of gasworks that the 

 exhalations arising in the various processes of gas manu- 

 facture — although, perhaps, not specially pleasing to the 

 olfactory organs — are not detrimental to health, but on 

 the contrary, highly beneficial in special forms of disease, 

 such as whooping cough, and croup. Inquiries were made 

 chiefly iu connection with the employes of the Paris 

 Oas Company. Dr. Lemaire found that those whose 

 duties did not necessitate a prolonged stay in the parte 

 of the works where tar was to be found were liable to 

 all kinds of ailments, and formed a considerable proportion 

 of the number on the sick list ; while among the work- 

 men specially occupied with tar, only three were sick in 

 the course of seven years. This result is all the more 

 striking when the number of workmen in the service of 

 tin company at the period referred to is conpidored. 

 There were altogether 20,553 men, of whom 764 were 

 engaged in some occupation connected with tar— European 

 Mail. 



The T. A. — J consider the T, A. an admirable 

 digest of all matters in which one is interested, and 

 invaluable as a volume of reference.— Uva Planter. 



Plantations in the Northern Territory. — A* 

 length a new spirit seems to have been infused into 

 the long languishing plantation industry in the North- 

 ern Territory. A new Company, with Mr. W. B. 

 Wilkinson as Secretary, has been floated, under the 

 name of the Daly River Plantatiou Company, with 

 a capital of £10,000 in £1 shares, to take over the 

 concession of 10,000 acres of land on the Daly River 

 promised by the Government to the old Delissa Com- 

 pany. The first meeting was held on Friday, and 

 the Company was then fairly inaugurated. On Mon- 

 day the new Company's tender of £600 waB accepted 

 for the valuable plant and machinery of the Delissa 

 Company — a great acquisition at an absurdly small 

 cost. The new Company are now advertising for a 

 Manager, and they intend to go to work in a thoroughly 

 practical way. The plant purchased is considered to 

 be one of the most complete in the oolonies. — South 

 Australian Register. 



Mr. John Hughes on the Ceylon Tea Industry. 

 —Writing to us under date the 0th March inst., Mr. 

 Hughes says: — "It seems from the letters in the 

 Observer that there is a danger of planters going in for 

 quantity instead of quality. This would be a great 

 mistake, for Ceylon tea has acquired a name for 

 quality, giving a rich dark-coloured liquor, good flavour, 

 but not so strong as Assam tea, there being really less 

 tannin present in the former than in the latter. It 

 would be great mistake to flood the market with 

 a large production of coarse leaf. My friend and 

 namesake (Mr. George Hughes) recently read a short 

 notice on the formation of phosphate of lime iu the 

 West Indies. I enclose abstract of paper in case 

 you should like to make use of it. I will send you 

 papers which appear likely to be useful for the T. A. 

 I have frequently mentioned the T. A. to my friends 

 interested iu planted tea, coffee, &c, and shall continue 

 to do so. I will see what I can do in the way of an 

 article about tea manures shortly ; in which I shall 

 specially point out the ingredients carried off the land 

 by an average yield." Mr. George Hughes's interesting 

 paper will appear in our Tropical Agriculturist. 



The Treatment of Coolies. — Referring to this sub- 

 ject, a Jamaica paper says: — "Prejudiced critics for- 

 get, or rather do not wish to remember, that the 

 ooolis immigrants in the West Indies are protected — as 

 the labourers of no other class in the world are protected 

 — against aught that savours of injustice, bad faith, 

 or oppression. In Trinidad, Jamaica, British Guiana, 

 and every other Colony having indentured coolies, staffs 

 of immigration agents or protectors are employed, 

 whose duty it is to see that the terms of the contract 

 are fairly aud fully carried out ; eo that it is absolutely 

 impossible for overtasking or any form of oppression 

 — such as the Times has the audacity to allege — to 

 exist iu Tiinidad or any of the other coolie-importing 

 Colonies. The law which we may term the Coolie 

 Labour Contract provides the indentured labourers with 

 a hedge of safeguards which the most evil-disposed 

 planter would not dare to break — aud against which 

 there would beat in vain even the full tide of the 

 British capitalist's rapacity and violence. We know 

 that the Times and its congenial plautophobes affect to 

 look upon immigration as another form of slavery. 

 Well would it be for the agricultural labourers of Great 

 Britain and Ireland if they could exchange places with 

 their Oriental confreres, who in the course of five or ten 

 years effect savings sufficient in many cases to sup- 

 port tin in all the. rest of I heir life, and save them fr<>m 

 anything resembling tho cruel Bumbledou and coarse 

 demoralization of the English workhouse.' — Colonies 

 and India. 



