90S 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1885. 



Birdsnest collecting at Gormauton is in full pro- 

 gress, and a fairly large crop is being obtained, 

 but owing to the low prices now ruling for nests, 

 principally in consequence of the war in China, the 

 value of the total outturn will be below the average. 

 — North Borneo Herald. 



Oranges in France. — The taste for oranges seems 

 to be as decidedly on the increase in France as the 

 taste for tea. Fifty years ago the annual consump- 

 tion of oranges in the country barely reached 15,000,000 

 lb. weight of the fruit. It had risen to double that 

 quantity in 1S5G, to over 50,000,000 lb. in 18G6, and 

 last year over 100,000,000 lb. of oranges were im- 

 ported. At one time Spain was almost the sole source 

 of supply ; but both Italy and Algeria now send 

 their quota of the fruit to the French market, the 

 Algerian contribution being by far the larger of the 

 two. The exportation of orauges from the colonies to 

 the mother-country.which only amounted to 16,0001b. in 

 1836, attained the large total of 10,000,000 lb. in 

 1SS4.— Pioneer. 



Among the various samples of Borneo produce 

 which Captain R. D. Beeston has sent to Melbourne 

 per the barque " Ellen" is one of the vegetable 

 tallow or vegetable wax (minyak tungkawaw) which 

 is stated on good authority to be the best lubricant 

 for machinery that can be procured, and which 

 combines economy with efficiency. There is no doubt 

 but that this product if properly attended to will 

 command a high price and be received with high 

 favour in the Australian colonies, as while it is as 

 good as palm oil, its price will never run to any- 

 thing like so high as that commodity. Captaii 

 Beeston thinks very highly of it, andhas particularly 

 requested his Melbourne friends to have it thoroughly 

 tested. We shall be happy to hear the result of the 

 experiment. — North Borneo Herald. 



Ceylon- Tea at High Altitude.— Upper Abbotsford, 

 Lindula, 23rd April. — I have the pleasure to send you 

 the result of our last two weeks' picking up here. You 

 will note that the income was according to the Hush 

 and the field — one day an average of 27 lb. and an- 

 other day only 12 lb. per cooly. This year we allow 

 our flush to run from 10 to 11 days, instead of from 

 7 to 10 days as last year. Beyond 14 days we 

 cannot well leave it, not ouly because it might 

 harden, but because the tip and pekoe leaf get pierced 

 by some insect against which I have not yet been 

 able to obtain a writ of "Habeas Corpus." It certainly 

 is not the solitary specimen of Helopeltis that I dis- 

 covered last year that does the harm, for Dr. Trimen 

 never returned me its mangled remains. The enemies, 

 1 suspect, aro a fishy-looking insect with a crest like 

 a woodpecker and a crocodile's tail, and a minute 

 rly with spotted transparent wings. I must send 

 specimens to those learned in insect lore for identi- 

 fication. 



April. 



nth 



7th 



8th 



9th 



10th 



13th 

 11th 

 15t.h 

 16th 



mh 



No. of 

 pluckers 



Av. lb. per 

 plucker. 



18'5 



23-5 



27 



21-C 



12 



") Average tea ma 

 ( 118 acres (d 

 f ing young pi 

 J 001 lb. per ac 



I Average tea made on 

 [deduct- 

 plants), 

 per acre. 



21-17 



16-881 



12;9 Average &e. (as 



12 V above), 801 lb. per 



13-02 acre. 



21 j 



"New Commercial Plants and Drugs."— Mr. Thomas 

 Christy sends us No. 8 of this publication, containing 

 accouuts of the following:— New Plants.— Kola Nut (with 

 coloured plate), its Uses and Cultivation; Fermentation 

 of Produce ; Gutta Perchas ; New Solanums, illustrated ■ 

 Sorghum Sugar; Nutmeg Genus, being a description of 

 known species, illustrated ; etc., etc. New Drugs.— Tho 

 Cuca, Cucain— its uses and results obtained ; Hydrocotylc 

 Asiatica; Papaine: Cuprea Barks; Cinchonamine, and 

 many other new drugs.— Reports on Produce Examined, &c 



Indian Expouts of Gold.— We have from time to time 

 given particulars of the exports of gold from Madras— the 

 output of the miues in Colar. The followiug figures giving 

 the exp orts siuce June last may be of interest:— 



365 6,076 1664 



My average per cooly up to date this year is 20'08 lb. 

 The excess over last year is already 12,033 lb. 



— Madras Standard. 



Facilities for Botanical Research.— An article 

 with the above heading, in Nature of 19th March, 

 poiuts out to students the wisdom of visiting tropical 

 and other ' gardens such as that at Buitenzorg in 

 Java, the Director of which, Dr. Treub, has issued a 

 circular on this subject. After referring to the 

 Buitenzorg garden, the writer says : — 



These facilities for botanical research in a tropical climate, 

 thus offered freely to strangers by the Dutch, naturally 

 suggest to the English mind that with all our' colonies we 

 have at present little of a like nature to offer : we have 

 in our gardens at Calcutta and Peradeuiya as good chances 

 of establishing laboratories for botanical research as the 

 Dutch had at Buitenzorg. Prof. Haeckel's interesting 

 account of his recent tour in Ceylon, and of his visit to 

 Peradeniya, gives some idea of the scope there would be 

 for a young botanist to carry on morphological and ana- 

 tomical work. In the sphere of thaliophytic botany Mr. 

 H. M. Ward has already shown that a lengthened stay in 

 the tropics may lead to the attainment of very valuable 

 results. 



Green Bugs and Coffee.— From Haputale, the 

 Hon. R. D. Downall writes: — "Just reading a 

 letter in the Observer ' From the Hills,' I came 

 across the passage ' when leaf fungus and scale 

 insect are absent.' By parcel post I send you 

 a few green bugs, and should be glad to know if 

 this is the ' scale insect ' referredj to ? I also send 

 you in same box some coffee cherries which 1 firmly 

 believe are attacked by this pest (you will observe 

 the marks on the outside, and the lightness of the 

 parohment inside), and the outturn of the parchment 

 is rendered light and inferior from this cause. This 

 bug is well known by Tamils as the ' narvala poochie ' ; 

 it often attacks fields of grain on the Coast, and, when 

 it does so, the fields are abandoned for the season, as 

 the beans or gram and other grain grown, become 

 light and inferior like the coffee here. I have made 

 many enquiries, but cannot learn that the attacks of 

 this pest have been noticed. I have sent the insects 

 to Messrs. Trimen and Green : the former did not 

 appear to attach any importance to their presence ; to 

 the latter gentleman I have now sent somo cherries. 

 I attach importance to their presence from very 

 unpleasant facts, which arc as follows : — Siuce their 

 appearance here in numbers, only this year 1SS4 85, 

 tho outturn of first parchment from the cherry which 

 used to be 70 per cent has fallen to 59 per cent 

 and 60 per cent ; and that from fine vigorous coffee 

 which has never suffered to any extent from leaf-disease, 

 and has had no attack for IS monthB.the coffee is bearing 

 a good crop, and bearing it well, Thcro is also this fact 



