June i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



907 



THE WEATHER AND CROPS UPCOUNTIIY. 



TRIAL OP JACKSON'S NEW TEA DRIER. 



THE NANTJOYA RAILWAY. 



THE HAPUTALE EXTENSION. 



Gampola, May 2. 



Splendid appearance of crop on the coffee on some 

 estates in Udapussellawa. Crops in Dimbula likely to- 

 be very variable : some estates having good prospects, 

 while others close by are very poor. A. continuance 

 of this weather for a week or two will give the 

 Agras a considerable addition to its crop. . 



The Nanuoya section opens on contract day. 



The trial of Jackson's tea drier takes place at 

 Carolina today, Messrs. Walker and Rae being present. 

 A report of the result will follow by telegraph. 



Mr. Waring is busy on the Haputale estimates. 



JACKSON'S VICTORIA DRIER. 



Dikoya, May 2. 

 Jackson's new drier, the "Victoria," Class B, now 

 at work on Carolina, gave most satisfactory results— 

 100 to 180 lb. dry tea per hour. It is self-acting 

 throughout. The flavor of the tea is improved, and 

 the bloom retained on account of not being haudled. 



FROM "OLD 



EX-CEYLON PLANTERS: NOTES 

 COLONIST." 



North of the Tweed, April Sth, 1885. 

 Another old Ceylon planter has just favoured me 

 with a call : John Ross— at one time with R. B. T. 

 on Ambecotta, afterwards in Rakwana, finishing up his 

 planting career in Upper Dimbula, where he who "knows 

 best" will acknowledge John did some excellent work. 

 For the past hour we have been busily engaged in taking 

 the Pioneers of Dimbula to pieces and putting them 

 together again. Mr. Ross's career since leaving Ceylon 

 —some fifteen years ago— has been a most varied 

 one, for some time in Mauritius and ultimately in 

 South Africa, during the Zulu war attaching him- 

 self to the transport service, where he was killed — 

 (according to ft correspondent of the Observer at tho 

 time !) Now we find him digging diamonds, now 

 farming, now a gold digger— finally settling down at 

 the more congenial work of nurseryman, a business 

 which his early training makes him peculiarly well 

 fitted for. He has»already introduced many tropical 

 and subtropical trees from India, Mauritius and Aus- 

 tralia : oranges, mangoes, figs grow luxuriantly, 

 cinchona fairly, while whole forests of the beautiful 

 Qrevillea robusta have been distributed over the 

 country. Thus, our quondam friend the coffee planter 

 is proving a bona fide benefactor to a country so 

 sparsely wooded as South Africa, while, at the same 

 time I am glad to nnderstaud, he is laying the 

 foundation of a substantial and very lucrative busi- 

 ness. Old Ceylon friends interested in the acclimatiz- 

 ation of trees might do worse than communicate 

 with Mr John Ross, tho Cedars, Town Bush Valley, 

 Maiitzburg, Natal. 



The Cm iiisiuv of Tea 



puling tea leaves for lln 



The Forbidden Fruit.— -It is thought in Peru that 

 they will before long be able to ship to the United 

 State the far-famed fruit known as the chirimoya, a 

 species of custard apple, which the Peruvians declare to 

 be the most delicious product of nature. A theolog- 

 ian in Lima once expressed the opinion that the chiri- 

 moya must have been the forbidden fruit of the Garden 

 of Eden aDd he did not wonder, therefore, that Adam 

 and Eve were tempted to eat it. — American Grocer. 



-The general idea of pre- 

 market is that they are 

 carefully picked from the bushes, then dried, and 

 finally packed in the condition in which Western 

 nations receive them. In their annual report on the 

 Indian tea trade, Messrs. George White & Co. show 

 that a good deal more has to be done, and that on 

 the proper doing of it largely depends the quality 

 of the article. Withering, fermenting, firing, and roll- 

 ing, arc some of tho piocesecs which tho modern 

 planter ought to understand. But such kuowlege is 

 difficult to come at, being only acquired, as a rule, 

 by long and very often costly experience. It is, 

 therefore, suggested that the tea associations of 

 London should subscribe a fund for the prosecution 

 of chemical experiments, with a view to doterniine 

 tho best and safest processes. In Ceylon, where the 

 planters were especially enterprising, this object is 

 partly attained by the interchange of ideas through 

 the medium of the local Press, and there seems 

 littlo doubt that the superiority of Ceylon tea is duo 

 in some measure to this good fellowship. Messrs. 

 White describe tho method of manufacture as " cook- 

 ing," and to entrust it to unskilled hands involves 

 the same disastrous consequences as result when the 

 raw materials for a dainty repast are operated upon 

 by a kitchen maid. Considering that the yield of 

 our Indian and Ceylon plantations during the present 

 year is estimated at nearly seventy million pounds 

 there ought to be no difficulty in obtaining the corn- 

 paratatively small sum required for the proposod 

 experiments. — Globe, March 28th. 



Coconut Trees in Fortifications. — At a time when 

 we bear of coconut trees being cut down to allow 

 of free play for the heavy guns to be mouuted 

 on Mutual Point near Rock House, it is interesting 

 to recall a passage like the following from an 

 old number of the Philosophical Mai/azine, aud 

 which has been reprinted iu our compilation on 

 the Coco Palm, positively now about to be closed. 

 Military men especially ought to be interested in 

 what is said of the use of the tree iu fortifications : — 

 The stem of the coco palm is composed of the strong 

 ligneous fibres, orossiug each other like net-work it is 

 not sufficiently hard and compact to be used as timber ; 

 but it is extremely elastic during the time it vegetates 

 or retains its sap. M. Lo Goux de Flaix states, that it 

 has then such elasticity as to c;iuse a cannon-ball to 

 rebound and bo deflected from it. In corroboration 

 ho relates that, " a military officer in the service of tho 

 French East India Company, who in the year 17G0 

 commanded Fort Alempaue, the revetments of which 

 could not have sustained ten cannon-shot, endured a 

 siege of ten or twelve days ; because M. Vcrri, who had 

 tho command there, conceived tho idea of causing 

 tho facings of the walls to be covered with coconut 

 trees, suspended from them. Another proof of my 

 assertion iu regard to tho astonishing elasticity of the 

 wood of the coconut tree occurred during the 

 memorable siege of Pondicherry, iu 1778 : a ball fired 

 from the place accidentally struck a coconut tree in an 

 avenue opposite to it and perforated the body of the 

 tree, which bent and suffered it to pass through it, as 

 if it had gone through a mattress. The trunk then 

 closed up, bringing together all the ligneous needles 

 of which it was composed ; and at the time the place 

 surrendered, the wound was perfectly healed. I 

 mention these facts, that advantage may be taken of 

 them, should urgent circumstances render temporary 

 fortifications necessary iu a country where coconut 

 trees can be readily obtained. I was sensible of the 

 utility of it during the siege of Pondicherry in 1778, 

 at which time I caused the merlons of the ramparts to 

 be covered with it." — With abundance of cabook for 

 earthworks and coco palms, Colombo is well off for 

 means of defence in some respects. 



