May i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL, AGRICULTURIST. 



847 



^on^spondonco. 



To the Editor oj the " Ceylon Observer. " 

 EXPERIMENTS WITH SIROCCO AND JACKSON'S 

 HAND ROLLER. 

 Tlieberton, Maskeliya, 3rd April 18S5. 



Dear Sir,— I noted in your issue of the 2Sth ultimo 

 a lotter from Mr. 0. A. Hay of Blackwater, Nawala- 

 pitiya, ou tea drying by Siroccos. I note he got 

 30J lb. made tea per hour from No. 710 old style 

 Sirocco, with charge of 9 lb. fermented leaf per tray. 

 I have just made a careful experiment with mine, 

 No. 637, old style, with a charge of 7 lb. fermented leaf 

 and a mean temperature of 283°. I got 34 lb. made tea 

 per hour. (I find that I get more per hour with a 7 lb. 

 charge of fermented leaf per tray than 91b. or more.) 

 I never turn my tea, only level tea as the third tray 

 is drawn out before placing iu fourth slide. 



I promised you the results of Messrs Jackson's 

 haud tea roller made by Messrs. John Walker & Co., 

 Kaudy, iu Jauuary last. 



This roller cost R475 nett. It is fitted with pulleys, 

 circular cross action bars of box, also 4 on each 

 aide under base sliding plate of table, which decidedly 

 makes it work lighter, as I found, by trying it at 

 first by mistake without the pulleys. Since I have had 

 the machine I took off the hopper fixed on top of 

 box and deepened the box 6". The original sine of 

 box when received was 14 V' high, 16!,'' wide each way; 

 increase . . ... 



present size of box 20A" x hi'". i,The measure- 

 ment given is outside ; the correct for inside is 

 19i" X 15J" X 15J". ) The box as first received rolled 

 about 50 lb. withered leaf; now it will roll 85 lb., viz. , 

 experiment ou 3rd April 1885: — 1st roll 85 lb. withered 

 leaf in 1 hour ; 2nd 70 lb. withered leaf iu 1 hour : 

 or 101 lb. iu two rolls in 2 hours, or 229 lb. green 

 leaf in 2 hours. This was rolled by 4 coolies, 1 cooly 

 tending, total 5. Ou 19th March, it rolled 066 lb. green 

 leaf iu 5 rolls with 6 coolies. On 2nd April, 41!l lb. green 

 leaf in 4 rolls with 5 coolies : that is 4 coolies roll- 

 ing, 1 cooly tending leaf. When the quantity of leaf 

 requires over two rolls one or two coolies extra 

 are taken on to spell the others. 



I feel sure when this machine is connected to water 

 power it will roll in half-an-hour or three-quarters 

 of an hour the same quantity of leaf better than with 

 hand power in one hour. I won d note that the leaf 

 even with the large quantity of 85 lb. was very well 

 rolled — quite as well as dot.e by the Universal, from 

 which so far I have only beeu able to get from 50 to 

 <iU lb. of leaf well-rolled. 



I have deepened the box of the Universal 6", but as 

 yet have not been able to see how it acts, as I have 

 not water sufficient at present to work it. When I 

 deepened the box of the hand-roller I increased the 

 weights by 7 lb. each side, or 15 lb. 



I will let you know how the Universal roller works 

 with the increase in size of box as soon as I have 

 water sufficient to work it — streams are lower this year 

 than ever I have kuowu thcui before. — Yours very 

 truly, T. J. GRIGG. 



P.S. — I have made Jackson's sifter do everything. 

 Never use a hand sieve. I have additional sieves to 

 fit in on top, deck on deck, iu fact a four-decker. It 

 does its work very well indeed : takes both dust and 

 Hat tea, out etc., etc., etc. What will Jackson say ': 



77 lh. fermented leaf made 34 lh. tea in an hour, 

 Note.— In a trial I had on the 2nd I got 86' lb. fer- 

 mented leaf done in the hour, but the 77 lb. in this trial 

 was more carefully done. T. J. G 



CACAO CULTURE IN WESTERN DOLOSBAGE 

 AND ITS ENEMIES. 

 Western Dolosbage, 6th April 1885. 

 Dear Sir,— At last I have found out the animal 

 which destroys so many of my cacao pods. I notice 

 that some of your correspondents have been afflicted 

 the same way, and, as they may have been as much 

 iu the dark as myself as to the brute which does 

 the damage, I shall make known my present know- 

 ledge. The animal is the ". Kola-vedda " of the 

 Sinhalese, the " Mara-nayi " (tree dog) of the Tamils, 

 I do not remember the scientific name, though your 

 Senior mentioned it when round this way.* The 



* The Sinhalese name enables us to identify it with the 

 Paradoxurus Zeylanicus, and " J. D." and other cacao 

 planters will like to read the full account giveu by 

 Kelaart :— " pahadoxubus zeylanicus Schreber. 



The golden Paradoxure— Coolla-Weddah— Shx/. Syu- 

 Martes Philippeusis— Camel. Viverra Ceylonica— Pallas. 

 V. Ceylonensis— Sodd. Paradox: aureus— F. Cuv. P. 

 Philippensis ? — Temm. 



Head elongated, muzzle rather short, blackish. Lips 

 black externally, ears small, dark brown, hairy externally 

 and almost naked ou the inner surface. Whiskers 

 white, long aud rigid. A few long rigid grey hairs on 

 the superciliary region. Colour of head and' legs dark 

 brown. Upper parts of the rest of a golden brown colour. 

 Beneath paler. Fur dense, short, moderately long, glossy. 



Three inconspicuous brown dorsal streaks, diverging and 

 terminating on the crupper. Some very indistinct brown 

 spots ; seen only iu some lights. Tail long, cylindrical, tip 

 rounded ; lighter coloured than the body. Limbs darker 

 brown, soles blackish, nearly bald to the heel. Iu females 

 an orbicular flat glandular naked surface surrounds the 

 vaginal entrance. Two pairs of mamma*, the fur round the 

 posterior pair of a reddish hue. 



A full grown female measured. ft, I n , 



Head and body ... ... 1 7 



Tail ... ... ... 1 S§ 



Head ... ... ... 5" 



Breadth of head, at vertex ... 3 



Height, at the shoulder ... s 



Stomach, 5i inch, long; small intestines, 10 feet ; large. 

 Li inches ; ctecum V{ iuch, abruptly terminating in an acute 

 point. Kidney 11 inch loug, aud j inch broad at its in- 

 ferior part, and \ inch broad at its superior termination. 

 Stomach with a distinct pyloric portion. 



Geographical Distribution. Philippine Islands? Ci 



Specimens have hitherto been received from the hi. 

 districts, and from the South and West Coasts. Those 

 from the mountains, are frequently larger, and of a darker 

 golden brown colour. A blackish brown variety ha* also 

 beeu seen at Nuwara Kliya which we shall distinguish as 

 VAB..—fuSCUS. ( /' . .,. b, | 



smaller than the generality of the above ordinary variet 

 The fur of a darker fulvous brown, with terminal third 

 of hairs of a dark beetle brown colour, giving a uuiform 

 rich lark brown surface colour to the animal, which seen 



