JULV I, iSSj.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



45 



A French Scientist has hsea studying the effects 

 of altitude upon vegetatioa, and concludes that for 

 each augmentation of about 100 yards there will be, 

 as a general average, a retardation of four days ; that 

 is, other circumstances being equal, a crop planted at 

 the sea level will appear above ground four days before 

 a similar crop planted 300 feet above it.— Ajnerkan 

 Grocer. 



" Helopeltis " AND TEA.— We have heard from 

 " Peppercorn " about the case he referred to, which 

 is one previously reported to us, and in which we be- 

 lieve the injury done to the tea bushes was due to 

 some other and temporary cause rather than helopeltis. 

 " Not Proven" seems to be the verdict so far in 

 respect to every instance in which helopeltis is alleged 

 to have damaged tea in Ceylon. 



In a rcccut letter I mentioned that a parcel of COCA 

 LE.vviis was on its way from Bolivia, and last week it 

 was disposed of at the handsome price of 7s per lb at 

 public sale, the buyers being Messrs. Howard & Sons of 

 Stratford, the well-known quinine makers. They have gone 

 in for the manufacture of the muriate of cocaine and of 

 some other out-of-the way extracts and alkaloids which 

 have hitherto been almost exclusively in the hands of 

 American and German chemists. — London Coi: 



Tea-Pkeparing Inventions. — We are glad to learn 

 that the experiments made with Mr. C. .Shaud's new 

 tea drier are pronounced very favorable in the results: 

 the tea so prepared being valued above average. We 

 have no doubt that Ceylon men, are to do much for 

 the simplifying and improving of tea-preparing 

 machinery, unless they should happen to be pulled up 

 by patentees. One such case is now in the Courts 

 and on its decision a good deal may turn. 

 - Cinchona and Tea. — The Dimbula Coffee Company 

 is entering on a new lease of lite, and we 

 trust it will prove one of uninterrupted prosperity, 

 Mr. Dick-Lauder, who has so well done his work in 

 the past, remains as Resident Manager, and between 

 coffee and bark there are receipts to come in for 

 the new shareholders more than enough to cover ex- 

 penditure, while the planting of tea is being so 

 actively carried out that already this season 450 acres 

 have been covered — 350 with tine plants and 100 

 planted with germinated tea seed. 



Tea Pluckino Contbact.s with Sinhalese on 

 LowconNTRY Estates.— An estate proprietor writes : 

 — "It. occurs to me to suggest that it would 

 be a good plan to institute a system of pluck- 

 ing contracts, similar to weeding contracts : for 

 outlying fields on estates it would be invaluable. 

 Tlie plucking of coarse leaf could be easily guarded 

 against by severe fines. Assuming that when tea ie 

 in full-bearing about 181b. of green leaf per diem 

 would be a good day'e work, and this at 36 cents 

 would be 2 cents per pound of green leaf. I am sure 

 if this system was ejtabliehed there would never be 

 any labor difficulty in Ceylon. The Sinhalese could 

 easily be taught to pluck properly, and they would 

 willingly do contract work." 



Coffee Movement in America,— The consumption 

 last month «a8 unusually heavy, it reaching 22,345 

 tons, being larj^rr than for any month in the record 

 of several years. In 1884 the average per month was 

 17,633 tons; in 1883,16,391 tons, wliich indicates the 

 gain made this year despite dull times. The con- 

 Bumptioii for the fiist quarter of 1885 a-ixs 61,980 tons, 

 against -19,2'25 tons and 53,594 tons in 1>84, and 1883 

 respectively. Undoubtedly a decline ot over two cents 

 per pound baa done much to improve the deliveries, 

 Tho increasing distributiou in a roasted state steadily 

 tends to increase the consumption. The roasters are 

 educating the people to believe that coffee fresh roasted, 

 fresh ground, and fresh made is a cheap luxury and 

 a delightful stimulant. In fact, coffee is fast becoming 

 the moBt popular beverage o£ the day ,— AimrkanOmer, 



Coffee i.v Java. — A satisfactory prospiet. — We under- 

 stand that the coffee crop in the Kesidency of Samaraug 

 promises to be overflowing this year. The trees are 

 now laden with berries which are almost ripe, and of 

 leaf disease there is hardly any tiace. Barring 

 accidents, there are good grounds for expecting au 

 abundant crop. — Locomotiif. 



The Prospects of Trade on the Congo.— Mr. 

 Stanley speaks in one chapter on " The Kernel 

 of the Argument." The Congo River is three thousand 

 miles in length, and the regions on either side are 

 densely populated, some of the villages being miles in 

 length. Palm oil, timber of various kinds, cotton, 

 orchilla weed, indiarubber, copal, spices, these and 

 au immense variety of their merchandise awaits. ex- 

 portation, and a railway 235 miles long, as Mr, 

 Stanley shows, would be able, in export and import 

 freights, to earn a gross revenue of 3OO,00OA per 

 annum.— Coto)ii't's and India. 



Tea Boxes from Japan— Mr. H. Drummond Deane has 

 returned after his pleasant Far Eastern trip, not so strong 

 in health as we should like to see him. His tea boxes 

 from Japan from what we have seen and learned are, un- 

 doubtedly, to be a great success. Their manufacture 

 is by means of American patent machinery and has 

 only been Lately commenced, so that the question is 

 if the demand for Japan itself (with exports reaching 

 to 40 million lb. per annum), taa for Ceylon and 

 India can be kept pace with. An Assam planter who 

 travelled with Mr. Deane was so pleased with the 

 sample boxes that he at once gave a big order. 

 One of the largest boxes without hoop-iron has been 

 tested by Mr. Deane with a full packing of dust, 

 and has come in such good order notwithstanding 

 transhipment at Hongkong from hold to hold, as to 

 give a good guarantee for the strength of the boxes. 

 Mr. Creasy has been appointed Mr. Deane's Agent 

 here and at his office, the samples can be seen : 

 the timber is good and thoroughly seasoned (kiln- 

 dried), the workmanship perfect, and the boxes strong 

 though light, while the prices range from 50 cents 

 for a box to hold 20 1b. (weighing itself 51b.) to 

 80 cents for a 13 lb, box to hold 100 lb. There 

 are three intermediate sizes to hold 45, 70, 901b. 

 and to cost 55, 60, 75 cents. Altogether Mr.' Deano 

 has made a happy hit and done good service to his 

 brother-planters. 



Tea-boxes from Japan.— The firm manufacturing the 

 boxes brought Ly Mr. Deane from Japan have chained a 

 private concession for the cutting of timber over 20 

 square miles of forest, covered with the trees so peculiar 

 to Japan, the Cryptomeria Japonica, of which the follow 

 ing account is fromthe Treasury of Botany : 



Obyptomekia. a lofty evergreen tree, forming a genus 

 of Coiiifirw of the tribe or suborder Citpressintce. The leaves 

 are shortly linear, falcate, rigid and acute, crowded but 

 spreading. The flowers are moueucious, the males in axil- 

 lary catkins, the peltate scales bearing five anther-cells at 

 their base. The fruits are in small terminal globular cones 

 with palmately-lobed imbricate scales, each one covering 

 four to six winged seeds. C. Japoniai, the only species 

 known, is a native of North China and Japan, and being 

 hardy enough to sustain our [English] climate without in- 

 jury, is now very generally planted in collections of Conifers. 

 It is not, however, suited to heavy soil. 



Messrs. Fraser, Farley, Varnum & Co., have only 

 recently begun manufacturing the boxes by niachiuory 

 —Mr. Ucane in fact taking away the first samples. 

 They use 40,000 chests a year on their own account, 

 and as all the tea from Japan has been sent away in 

 similar boxes — hand-made, hitherto, and therefore ZQ 

 to 40 per cent dearer— the machine-made boxes are 

 likely to secure the home market for tho forty millions lb. 

 of tea exported ; besides being in demand for India 

 aad Ceylon, 



