May i, 1885.] 



TmE TROPTCATL ACRTCTJLTURTST. 



845 



Coca Leaves from Ceylon valued at 13s per lb. 13 

 the pood news Dr. 1 rimen has to commumoate.. 

 the result of a trial consignment made by him from 

 the Botanic Gardens. Who are fortunate enough to 

 have coca old enough to begin cropping, of who even 

 have growing plants ? 



(fens AbIotsfobd, Likdula. 11th April.-The ram- 

 fall for March was exactly 2 inches, ot which 1 46 tell 

 on the 28th. Since then alternate sun and shower have 

 helped to maintain the extraordinary flushing [powers 

 which tea has displayed up here since December last 

 I have lately had many kind assurances that the 

 statistics I send are valued, or I would not be pre- 

 sumptuous enough to continue indicting them upon the 

 public. The following are the figures for the weeks 

 ending 28th March and 4th April: — 



Date. 

 March 23 



.. g 



„ 25 



2(1 

 ., '-'7 



April 



Pluckers. 

 2 

 2 

 133 

 144 

 144 



Leaf. 



28 



40 



2,524 



3,456 



4,204 



Avge. per Plucker. 

 14 

 20 

 19 

 24 

 29-2 



349 7,316 20-9 



Mv average green leaf per cooly up to the end ot 

 last week for the whole year is 20T7 lb. This past 

 week will mure than sustain this high figure, aud it is 

 hard to see wht n the bashes are going to take their 

 rest. 1 hear that some misconception has arisen about 

 my average per acre for the various fields. For 

 instance 1 am still picking from the cattle-shed held 

 at the rate of 1,200 lb. per acre. Of course I do not 

 expect this to continue for the whole year ; but the 

 best way I can think of of explaining what this rate 

 per acre means is this. If 1 cau only sustain this 

 average to the end of this month, I need not pick 

 another leaf for the next eight months off this field, 

 and yet I should be able to record 400 lb. an acre 

 at the end of the year (i e., 1,200 lb. for four mouths 

 equals 400 for 12 months). Agaiu, I must correct 

 another most unworthy suggestion that has bee 

 to the '-Senior" on his travels. My coolies are still, 

 many of them, picking their 30, 40, and 50 lb. daily, 

 and a little while ago three or four of them picked from 

 70 to 75 lb. each. It has therefore been said that these 

 special individuals get their children or other eooliee 

 to help them. Now this I can positively deny, for the 

 fields are over a mile (in some cases three and four 

 miles) from the lines, and I myself am in the fierd 

 almost the whole day, aud measure nearly every 

 basket personally. Lastly, to prove that tea fi m 

 young plants is not included in the 110 acres, 1 give 

 a memo, from our last Tea Report : — 



Total tea made (1885) ... 30,036 



Deduct young plants (do) ... 4,999 



25,037 

 25,037 -H 110 acres x 14 weeks == 16-25 lb. per acre 

 per week x 52 weeks = 884 lb. per acre. So that our 

 young plants have given a sixth of the whole yield. Our 

 monthly make and rainfall stand as below :— 



Make. Rainfall. 



Jan. ... 8,617 (let. the flush 



run for 2 weeks) P6i 

 Feb. ... 10,692 2-11 



March ... 10,479 2 



29,788 

 As you know, our Giant Tea Tree in- blownrtown, 

 but the other day Mr. R. S. Fraser of Matale and we 

 measured another tree aud found it 28 feet 2 inches in 

 diameter. 



PoONAC. — The advance in H10 market value of this re- 

 fuse of tli'- coconut oil manufacture is somewhat remark- 

 able, aud not easily explainable. For purposes of export 

 it has steadily advanced in price until it has reached E90 

 pur ton !— R4'50 per cwt. Forty years ago, when this 

 article first came into demand for manuring coffee, the 

 Messrs. Worms bought up all they could lay hands upon 

 at from nine pence to a shilling the hundred pounds ; when 

 it fell below nine pence it was employed in the mills as fuel '. 

 — Local " Times." 



Kansas has not lost faith in sorghum as a sugar- 

 cane. Three regular factories exist in the State, and 

 many hundreds of thousands of pounds of sugar are 

 made annually. About 130,000 acres of cane were 

 raised during last soason, yielding over twenty tons 

 to the acre. A machine has been patented which cuts, 

 tops and biuds the cane, and the peculiar machinery 

 needed for the proper manufacture of sorghum sugar 

 is fast being brought to perfection, while economy in 

 its use i§ rapidly beiug learned. Kansas fanners, 

 therefore, want to see the duties on sugars maintained. 

 — New York Hour. 



Tea Made from Other Plants. — The Pharmaceutical 

 Journal of March 21st contains a paper from Mr. 

 ThiseltonDyer on Tea used by the Circassians made 

 from a plant ( Vaccinium arctostaphylos) grown on the 

 hillsides in the province of Roum. Mr. Dyer's account 

 together with other papers bea'ing on the subject will 

 appear in full in our Tropical Agriculturist. It seems 

 there are several tea substitutes in use in different parts 

 of tho world. Another plant (Leihim palustre) yields 

 Labrador tea. This reminds us of the coffee-tea at one 

 time freely made in Java from the leaves of the coffee 

 plant and of similar experiments tried in Ceylon an old 

 Candy resident, whose name we forget for the mo- 

 ment, and Mr. John Tyndall of Glenloeh being credited 

 with entertaining their friends to very refreshing 

 cups of "tea" infused from prepared coffee leaves. 



Brazil and Jamaica.— -We have been favoured 

 with a letter, dated Jamaica, February 16th, ad- 

 dressed by Col. Reeve, who'last year visited Ceylon, 

 to a friend in Colombo. The following extracts which 

 we are permitted to take are of special interest, more 

 especially as from other sources our information seems to 

 point to the near approach of the long-expected crisis in 

 the Brazil Labour Market: — "We have been con- 

 siderable wanderers si-ice I wrote to you 12th Aug. 

 last from Madeira, having visited Bdiia.'Rio, ic, then 

 some 11 of the W. I. islands all very interesting, 

 but somewhat triste owing to the depression caused 

 by low price ot sugar, coffee aud agricultural produce 

 generally. Brazil appears to be in a state of uneasi- 

 ness about giving freedom to all her slaves within 

 the next two years; the planters declare tbey must 

 be ruined by it, for when the blacks are tree, they 

 will leave the estates and take to squatting on the 

 vast lands of the interior or go to the large towns 

 and sea-ports. The slaves are so brutally ill-treated by 

 I the Brazilians that they will not labour as freemeu 

 1 for their old taskmasters. Again there is trouble 

 I with the Argentine Republic through encroachment on 

 ' Brazilian territory which may lead to war, in which case 

 I the latter will most probably be worsted, thi army beiug 

 crowded with incompetent officers. A country with 

 an annual deficit of 3J millions sterling with a re- 

 venue of 12 millions only, will not be improved by 

 war even if successful. This island (Jamaica) is no 

 longer an Eldorado to the white man, but it is to 

 the yellow and black man, and if the price of sugar 

 does not improve, a few more years of hard times 

 will clear out the white planters altogether. In some 

 parts labour is scarce owing to the exodus to Colon, 

 and the unhealthy isthmus kills vast numbers of the 

 Jamaici niegerSi" — Airs. Reeve, who visited Ceylon 

 with her husband, wrote a poem on " The Ruins of 

 Anuradhapura " which will be remembered in the 

 Obterver, 



