Jvtv 1, iSSj.J 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



4J 



■*■ 



To the Editor of the " Ceylon Observer. " 



BREWING IN CEYLON AND INDIA. 



Oldbury, 20th May. 

 Dear Sit:,— I was asked the other clay fur sume 

 infoimatiou respe^otiBg the brewing process as caiiieJ 

 on ill India aud Ceylon. A brewery was started iu 

 Ceylon at NuwarA Eliya just before I left the country 

 in 1SS3, but I have heard nothing of its ultimate 

 Buccess or failure. If the Brewery is still carrying 

 on business, could you obtain from the managers an 

 article on the " process tliey adopt," " w-ater," 

 "yeast," and general means of overcoming the climatic 

 difficulties, which must be great ? I should esteem 

 it a great favour if you could oblige mfl in this 

 matter, and I think if you had no objedioi the 

 article could very likely be published iu the Brewers' 

 Journal. 



With every good wish for the success of yourself 

 and paper. I am, yours very einoerlv, 



^ ^ C. W. BARTON. 



[This letter speaks for itself, aui perhaps someone 

 who knows may send information oa the subject 

 of Brewing in the East. The last time we siw Mr. 

 Wbymper, he stated to us that his chief obslaclo in 

 Nuwara Eliya to successful brewing lay in the pro- 

 hibitory railway traftic rates for malt and other requis- 

 ites : costing him as much for a hundred miles bore, as 

 for a thousand miles in India. We hope a conces- 

 sion has since been made, — In vol. I. of Tropical 

 Agrictdturist, pages 690 and 71S, and again on page 

 655 of vol. II., we gave some information which 

 should be of service to Mr. Barton's friend wlio is 

 interested in the Brewers' Journal. It is therefore 

 from a literary point of view that information is 

 wanted. Can Mr. Barton in return tell us of the 

 prospect of an increasing demand for cinchona bark 

 on the part of brewers either iu England or on the 

 Continent of Europe? — Ed.] 



TEA SIEVES. 



Bunyan, SOth May 1S85. 

 Deaii Sib,— Reading the local papers some days ago, 

 I noticed gouie tea-men found it a diliioulty to separ- 

 ate the large from the small leaves, I mean the pekoe 

 from souchong ones. I got my carpenter to make 

 two large si^ve3 (one for each of my estates) 8' liy .3' 

 with a depth of say six inches, meshes S of an 

 inch square made out of the strands of an old wire 

 rope, a simple contrivance. So I suppose many tea 

 planters have the same sort of a thing, cheap but not 

 na.'<ty. The sieve is slung from the four corners with 

 a wire from the floor alone. One man can sift 300 lb. 

 leaf per hour just as it arrives from the field. I'ekoe 

 leaves of course go through leaving souchong ones in 

 the sieve. Leaves beirg thus separated enables me 

 to get even withering : as the small leaves will be 

 ready before the large, if put together to wither, I 

 do not see how a man can get even or proper wither- 

 ing. Leaves will be ready for rolling, and will 

 have more white tips of courss than if the lartre and 

 small ones were all rolled of a heap ; tips will not 

 be discoloured by the juice from the lal•^'e leaver. 

 Commonsense tells H.iall that. My sieves have been 

 in use with me between two and three years, and they 

 are a great help indeed. GO to 70 per cent of pekoe 

 leaves pass through. V\ hen leaf comes in wet, several 

 of the leaves will be found clinf^ing together ; the sieve 

 shakes them adrift. Of courae this tort uf a sieve niiiy 

 have been iu use for many year.H. I hope so. — Yours 

 truly. THOMAS GllAY. 



G 



TEA FROM S.MABL GARDENS: HOW lAN 



IT BE BEST SORTED AND DISPOSED OF. 



Madulk-ele, SIst May 1885. 

 Dkar Sii!, — Having a small acreage of tea, "say 

 from 15 to 20 acres, " and fr'ini which I hope to get 

 about 150 to 170 lb. of made tea per in nth. could 

 you or any of your luinierous correspondents, inform 

 mo as to the best mode of sending this small quantity 

 home — whether it should be assorted into two or thrcs 

 cKisses or dispatched unassorted ? — Yours truly, 



ENQUIRER. 



OLD COFFEE PULPEUS CONVERTED INTO 

 TEA SIFTING MACHINES. 



Blackwaler, 4th June 1SS5. 



Dear Sir, — Now that so many coffee estates are 

 being planted up with tea, planters must be asking 

 the question, " What are we to do with ourpulpers?" 

 I can tell them : Do as I have done with .an ancient 

 one I found on this estate — oonve.t the s'eve at- 

 tachment into a tea-sifting machine. I have had one 

 working for tome months, and it does ;ill my work 

 and quite as well as the most expensive patent. 1 

 made a set of sliding sieves, No-r. 8 10, VI, and 14, 

 and whichever I require can at once b- adjusted. 

 The tea is put in a hopper at top and falls on the 

 sieve, through that on to a galvaniz d plate, I'ekoe, 

 Souchong uopqualized pn.sslng of! the tup at one endt 

 whilst Broken Pekoe and Pekoe nii.xed puss lait at 

 the other. Two men can easily sort iu a day ;)()0 ;j 

 400 lb. Pekoe and Broken Pekoe mixed to;,'other 

 with one man to equalize the Pekoe Souchong : these 

 3 men can finish off 400 lb. of bulk into IJrukeu 

 Pekoe, Pekoe, Pekoe Souchong and Dust for a dav'a 

 work. Messrs. W. H. Davies &. Co. can supply ihu 

 wire mesh, a piece of which .S' G" x 'A' coats ab.iut 

 K5'25. and to make eaoh sieve with wood, nails and 

 labour another R2 ; so that they are very little liVer 

 the price paid for one of the round ones wliich eo its 

 RG'oO and has only half the sifting surface. I am 

 making on an averaj;e 400 lb. tea a day, and theso 

 men keep up with the manufacture easily. Anyone 

 wishing can send his carpenter and get the "plaii 

 ol the whole affair. — Voars faithfully, 

 C. A. HA Y, 



TOBACCO-LOVING INSECTS: A CURE WANTED^ 



Df.ab SiH|— Oould any of your numerous corrcspondeiits 

 inform me what can be done to keep insects from eigais 'i 

 They make a small hole iu the cigar and pleiee it 

 through aud through. If you could be the means of in. 

 terming me what could be done to prevent the ravages 

 of these beasts, you would much oblige VINoT 



THE SOUTH-WEST MONSOON : INTERESTING 

 DEDUCTIONS. 

 Dear Siu,— Weather science, as it afl'ects any 

 particular locality, is an impossibility. The remit 

 depends upon so many circumstances spread over such 

 a vast area where observation is impracticable, that 

 the event must ever remain uncertain at any given time 

 and place. By the hading astronomers iu Kurojie it is 

 now relegated to the columna id Zadkkl and nuoh 

 like publications together with " Sun-spottery " and 

 the South Kensington clique of oliice-seekcrs, who 

 still humling Government and the public with that 

 myth. The swaying of ihe trojiieal monsoons, how- 

 ever, is another matter, hut the (/((irHi)/)/ 3nt\ ym/iieuci/ of 

 the rains which accompany tlnin belong to weutlicr 

 science. The burst of the monsoon shonhl surely 

 always be .accuding 1o y<uv own delinitiun and not 



ac'.cordiiig ti) tl ! ?riarlicd A, It and C. 



Hut what strikes iii'j loruibly iu regard to thi 

 chief question under discuosion, namely, " the aveia"; 



