42 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1885. 



period required for the travelling, of moDSOon raiua 

 from Colombo to Bombay," was the 35 days average 

 therein arrived at, because observation here appears 

 to agree witli theory. 



The monsoon follows the sun in theory, so Mr. 

 Pearson's table shows that it does in fact. Taking 

 the latitude of Colombo at 7° and that of Bombay at 

 18° (?)* we have a difference of 11°. According to 

 VVhitaUer the sun this year was vertical at Colombo 

 on April 8th and at Bombay on May 12th, or 34 days 

 later ! 



The q.'estion to be solved appears to be : " Howmany 



days is the mnnsoon on an average, latar than the sun i " 



under any agreed definition. Take definition A, for 



instance ; we can then construct tlie following table : — 



N. Lat. Sun Vertical. Add Monsoon due. 



Colombo 7° 8th April (?) 12 days 20th Apl. 



Bombay 18' 12th May 12 days 24th May 



Z^ 



METALLIC VEINS IN THE ROCKS OF 

 CEYLON. 



Sir, — There has been much learned specnl- 

 ation about the age of the rocks in Ceylon, but it 

 seems lo me of very little importance what place they 

 occupy seeing that they are old and crystalline enough 

 to makn it highly probable that they contain some- 

 thing of more value than fossils. I mean metallic reins, 

 the search for which seems to me to have been sadly 

 neglected, for it is hardly possible that rocks so crys- 

 talline could prevail over such a large extent of country 

 and not have some payable fissures in them. I have 

 oaly heard of one case where any real prospecting 

 was done, and, I believe, some silver found, but the 

 work was not carried out sufficiently to prove whether 

 the vein was a paying one or not. Some good how- 

 ever was done by the attempt, as it showed that veins 

 may be looked to run from about E. N. E. to W. S. W., 

 same aa they do in Wales. 



Many erratic attempts have been made to find sold 

 in bedded quartz when the strata chanced to be suffici- 

 ently on edge to give it the appearance of a fissure 

 vein ; but nothing was exaniiurd that did not show 

 quartz, as only gold was hoped for. The only reason 

 T have heard given, against the chance of finding 

 metals in Ceylon, is that no trace, may be said, is 

 to be found of them on the surface ; but this is hardly 

 any reason, iu my oi>inion, against them in a country 

 that has not been knocked about by earthquakes and 

 volcanic disturbances. Except silver, very few metals 

 are to be found quite up at the surface, and copper 

 is usually from SO to 100 feet down. M. 



[Our correspondent, in a private note, tells of 

 " pro-spccting " in Pussoliawa, and sends the following 

 from Mr. A. Dixon : — 



" Normal St*ool, Colombo, 13th August 1884. 

 I am sorry I have kept you waiting so Ions', hut I 

 vhave been very ill under the doctor, wlui woiiUl not allow 

 mc to do any work. I hxve us.sayed your iiiiarlz. It is 

 of a far superior qualit,^ to the last you sent, being much 

 more compact. It coiiliinis the minerals honihlonde and 

 I'pidote in layers, ami at the junction of these with the 

 quartz there is metal. Silver is present at the rate of 

 11.35 dwt. per ton. There are also traces of gold, 

 titanium, iron and manganese, and other less important 

 metals. — Yours sincerely, Alexandeb O. Dixon." 



We quite agree with our correspondent that a thorough 

 geological and minoralogical survey of our formations 

 ehonld be made. There have been some ]uLtty deep 

 cuttings on our mountain railways, and an examination 

 of the drbris might reveal something valuable. Mr. 

 Blackett. who brought kuowledgo and testing material 

 from Ballarat, is sanguine that gold will be found in 



* Bombay is iu 19 degrees N. Lat. exactly.— Bd, 



Dolosbage. Mr. Blackett, in fact, had specimens o 

 his rock assayed »t the School of Mines, Victoria 

 i with the result of gold being found at a rate which 

 would pay under favourable circumstances. — Ed ] 



COOLIES PER ACRE FOR PLUCKING TEA J 



j 10th June 1885. 



] Dear Sir, — I should like to know if you or some 

 of our leading tea men would inform me what they 

 consider a fair number of coolies per acre for tea 

 picking. We hear a lot about coolies picking an 



' average of 1.5 to 20 lb. or more. ^'hat I want to 



I find out is what extent of ground a cooly ought to be 

 able to pick over, tay for a field giving sometimes 30 lb. 

 green leaf per acre, sometimes 40, 50, up to nearly 

 Too lb. per acre or more. 



I The only letter that I have seen that bears on 

 the subject is Mr. M. H. Thomas's of May 23rd 

 published by you on May 27th. There he states he is 

 picking off 100 acres : I see he averages from 276J 

 to 348^ coolias, or say 2J coolies to 3^ per acre, and 

 the former picked the best round of the lot, viz. , average 

 of !7'2 per oooly. Abbotaford ought to be able to 

 give us a good idea on the subject. I should like to 

 know what difference is experienced in picking Assam 

 hybrid and China hybrid : as the latter is much tmaller 

 leaf, it is. I suppose, more expensive picking ; at any 

 rate I find it so. — Years truly, B. S. 



[A "V, A." gives IJ to 2 cooliea per acre as his 

 idea of an annual average fortea plucking. — Ed.] 



NEW TIN AND TAINTED TKAS. 



Rangala, Uth June 1885. 



Dpar Sir, — I shall be very much obliged if you 



will obtain me an answer to the following through 



your paper: — The way to remove the smell of new tin 



canisters, which taint the tea if it is packed io them. 



PLANTER. 

 [Keep the canisters open to the air for some 

 time, or, query, burn a little charcoal over them. — Ed.] 



TEA IN JOHORE. 



SiR.^I beg to send you copy of a letter I wrote 

 to a friend of mine the other d.ay who was in com- 

 munication with me, as to whether Johore would answer 

 as a [irofitable tea-producing country. If you think 

 the loiter worth publishing by all means do so, as 

 I think it may be the means of preventing tea 

 planters coming here from Ceylon and elsewhere to 

 meet with nothing but (as the most have done) 

 disappointment. — I remain, dear sir, yours faith- 

 fully, W. H. G. 



Dear Sir, — In reply to your query of the 5th iust as 

 to whether tea would pay in .Tolioro or not, I beg to 

 submit the following as my c.indid opinion, and winch 

 is supported with the opinion of other tea planters that 

 I have met here and been in eomnuniination with: gentle- 

 men and planters of experience that have given the 

 country of .Johore ft more lengthened and as some of 

 thom are sorry to say to their cost a determined trial ( mor6 

 than I care to do now), which proved unsatisfactory 

 and unprofitable without an exception. 



'i'KA Cultivation in JonoijE. 



Climate. — A goo-l tea climate as a rule is not a healthy 

 one. .Tohore and Singapore are boasted of by the European 

 community liere as the healthiest places iu the tropics. 

 This fact I candidly admit aiul coincide with tliem in. It has 

 not t+ie hot damp mucky climate we have in Assam and 

 which is an indispensable point with regard to pi-otitable 

 tea cultivation. Therefore the great desideratum Johore 

 pos.sesse?:, suflieient rainfall, but suflers from lengthened 

 and severe drought in the early part of the year; in fact 

 rain throughout the year is very iiTegular, so much so that 

 I have seen rents or cracks all over a tea plantation called — 

 — (that I resided on some time) so bad and the soil actually 

 baked as hard as a brick. I began to think that this evil 



