936 



TRF. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1885. 



of the Brahmaputra. Many coffee planters were 

 wont to affhm that they obtained their best cropa on 

 the steepest land, and experience in a good many 

 cases seems to prove that the process will be repeated 

 in the case of tea. Abbotsford is certainly steep, 

 featured as well as high in altitude (4,600 to 6,000), 

 and yet tea grows here with wonderful luxuriance. 

 High altitude is do doubt compensated for by nearness 

 to the equator (7° instead of the 27° and over of Assam), 

 while Ceylon is an island instead of part of a great 

 continent at the foot of the loftiest mountain chain 

 on the globe. 



But to return from the Himalayan snows to the 

 genial climate of our own mountains and the mountain 

 railway with which I began. The railway to Nauu- 

 oya is practically complete, and we trust it will not be 

 long at work, when Uva will be at length assured 

 of long-denied justice, by the cutting of the first sod 

 of the section to Haputale. 



We have had heavy rain from about 10-30 a m. to 

 1 o'clock, the result of a thunderstorm which seemed 

 to approach from the northeast. Kain has com- 

 menced heavily again at 2 30 p.m. 



I had almost forgotten the question of plucking with- 

 out pruning. When trees become " scraggy," it is 

 evident they need pruning. Our experience heie is that 

 tea bushes can be plucked for two years consecutively, 

 but a period of 18 mouths is probably the safe limit. 



MR. D. MORRIS'S REPORT ON THE JAMAICA 



GARDENS. 



We have received Mr. Morris's Annual Report on the 

 Public Gardens anil Plantations of Jamaica, which, as 

 usual, contains various matters of much general and local 

 interest. We have already referred, iu 7ioticing a similar 

 report from Queensland, to the immense economical im- 

 portance of such institutions as this', and we are glad to 

 perceive that such competent authorities as the late Royal 

 Commissioners in the West Indies and Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 have publicly recognized the value of Mr. Morris's labours. 

 The former suggest that in all the lesser islands "plant 

 committees" of the residents should at once bo formed to 

 correspond with the establishment iu Jamaica, while Sir 

 Joseph Hooker, in commeutiug on this recommendation iu 

 his letter to the Colonial Office, stated that there cau be no 

 doubt that the future prosperity of the West Indies will be, 

 largely affected by the extension to other islands unprovided 

 with any kind of botanical establishment of the kind of the 

 operations so successfully carried out by Mr. Morris iu 

 Jamaica. But he thinks that m ere committees will not be 

 enough : botanical stations on a cheap basis are an essential 

 condition for doing anythine in au effective way. The 

 money value of rain in Jamaica is well shown in u para- 

 graph in the report quoted from Mr. Maxwell Hall's 

 estimate. A comparison has been made between so many 

 inches of rain per annum and so mauy casks of sugar per 

 acre. Thus there were 1,659 casks per acre for 79 inches 

 rainfall and 1,441 casks with SO inches, so that the differ- 

 ence due to a larger or small island rainfall is on an average 

 nearly one-tenth of the export sugar crop. This one-tenth 

 export crop, for sugar and rum, represents in value nearly 

 100,000/. But if other produce, which is likewise affected 

 by a greater or less rainfall, such as coffee and pimento, 

 the difference would amount to a very considerable sum. 

 During the year considerable atteution was devoted in the 

 herbarium to the medicinal plants of the island, and to 

 forming not only a collection of botanical specimens, but 

 also of the barks, roots, and the portions used for medicine. 

 The value of his herbarium to the commercial interests of 

 the West Indies was shown while working up the botanical 

 classification of the indigenous plants capable of yielding 

 fibre. It was found that the common native Agave (aloe) 

 of Jamaica was not, as had been represented iu books on 

 Jamaica plants, the Agave amc»iea>t(i, but au entirely differ- 

 ent species, the Agave keratto of Salmdyck. The applic- 

 ation of this difference, which appears to him only one of 

 botanical nomenclature, to the industrial arts is that, under 

 the belief that this plant was At/ai'e americana, and there- 

 fore capable of yielding valuable fibre, large sums of money 



wore spent and lost in getting out machinery to clean fibre 

 which was of inferior quality. 



At the end of the report on the Jamaica public gardous 

 above referred to, Mr. Morris mentions some curious in- 

 stances of superstitions among the negroes with regard to 

 plants. The plantation labourers believe that if they take 

 up the horse-plantain suckers (i.e. those with loug fingers), 

 and then take up one of the maiden plantains (with the 

 short fingers) while the gum or juice is still fresh upou 

 their cutlasses, and they use the same cutlass, (lie maiden 

 plantains will produce horse-plantains, and this was said 

 by them to be a matter of common experience. It is 

 believed also to be unlucky to point the finger when speak- 

 ing of any growing plant in a provision ground, or eveu 

 to name a plant which has recently been planted. It is 

 stated even by intelligent Europeans that if the seed of the 

 shaddock (Citrus decumanei) is planted, there is but one 

 in a whole shaddock that will produce good and pleasant 

 fruit, and also that there arc fifty-two seeds in a shaddock, 

 only two of which produce the real shaddock, while the 

 others produce a variety of fruits such as the sweet lime, 

 forbidden fruit, grape fruit, Chester fruit, and orange !— 

 Nature. 



The Vanilla Plant has been found growing on the 

 borders of the everglades of Florida. — American Grocer. 



Tree-planttno in Bengal. — la the Santal Pargana3 

 during the year 18S3-S4 tree-plauting along the 

 roads was very carefully attended to. The trees 

 were maintained with good c ire, and are all thriving 

 luxuriantly. About . r >,00) young fruit trees, chiefly 

 mangoes, were planted along the road-sides. — Pioneer. 



The Planters of the province of Bahia seem will- 

 ing to take immigrants on the m'tarie basis. They, 

 by the Imperial Bahia Institute of Agriculture, pro- 

 pose two-thirds for the planter and one-third for the 

 laborer, or eveu half for each, if the capital invested 

 in land, machines and live sock be taken into account. 

 The planters will furnish the necessary for the im- 

 migrants' first establishment. — Rio News. 



Tea Machines: The Cry is Still They Come.— A 

 planter writes : — " Enclosed I send you a circular 

 of a Tea Sifter I am trying to introduce in'o 

 Ceylon, and hope to be able to send you part- 

 iculars of a new Drier shortly " The Sifter is 

 " Baiilie and Thomson's Patent" which is highly 

 spoken of. — Wo also hear of another Tea Drier on a 

 new principle being perfected in Colombo, so there 

 will be no lack of competition. 



Movement of Ground Nuts at Pondicherry. — 

 The French steamer " Province," 3,872 tons register, 

 Captain Vert, belonging to the Compagnie Nationale, 

 left Pondicherry for Marseilles on the loth instant, 

 having taken in about 35,000 baga of ground nuts 

 The "Provence" was advertized to leave on 18th, but 

 having completed her loading earlier than was expected 

 she got away on Wednesday evening. The French 

 steamer "Suez," 1,064 tons register, Captain Morgan, 

 leaves on Monday, 20th, for Slarseilles, with 30,000 

 bags. The stocks are still very heavy, as freights 

 cannot be obtained. Prices have gone down to B9 per 

 candy nominal. — Madras Mail. 



Tea and Other Products in Southern India. — 

 We call atteution to the letter iu our Supplement 

 addressed by Mr. W. J. Kemp to The Field; in 

 which a very favourable case for the extension of 

 tea cultivation in Southern India is made out, Mr. 

 Kemp goes so far as to show profits rising from 11^ 

 to 55 per cent on capital invested. Who would not 

 rush into tea after this ; but many of his readers 

 will think it strnnge that so few India tea concerns 

 pay even n steady 5 to 6 per cent. Mr. Kemp is 

 absurdly out iu talking further on of searx rubber 

 yielding 300 lb. per acre value £45 (profit £37!) after 

 the Gth year. Such statements only doharm to the 

 cause of planting and new products in the East. The 

 o rrespondence which has led to this letter will be 

 given in full in our Tropical Agriculturist, 



