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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1885. 



Charcoal, which is an important article in the 

 manufacture of tea, ia also a scarce commodity 

 just at present. Some years ago you could 

 nuy it at the rate of $1 for 3 piculs ; 

 now you can only get 80 catties for a dollar 

 A very large quantity of charcoal ia used in all the 

 large towns of Formosa for cooking purposes, but an 

 enormoua quantity is also rt qui red at Twatutia and 

 elsewhere for firing teas. Kach tea packing hong has 

 a large tiring room attached. Small hongs have 50 to 

 100 tires and large hongs have about 200 to 300 fires 

 and even more. The fire places are simply circular holes, 

 abjut two feet in diameter, surrounded by brick 

 facings. They are arranged in rows, and are 

 not much more than eighteen inches above the 

 flior of the room. The tire holes are apart about 

 half a foot and on the top of these circular holes or 

 re;eptaole3 for live chnrcoals arc placed the baskets 

 containing tea. The fires are prepared in a simple 

 way ; a lagre pile of charcoal ia lighted and allowed 

 to burn till all the combuatible matter contained 

 therein has disappeired, and then the red hot particles 

 are plio d by the firing men ia the circular tire- 

 places. For several hours the fires are allowed to 

 flare up and oast forth a flame and glow that few 

 men can stand for any length of time. If jou enter 

 a large firing room at the time the fires are being 

 lighted it is like going into an oven, and the return 

 to the open air reminds yon forcibly of the heated 

 atmosphere of Montreal hotel'!, where inside the 

 temperature is perhaps over 70' and on going out of 

 the front door you suddenly find yourself in an 

 atmosphere several degrees below zero. This ia 

 putting it very mildly, f ir in a room with 300 fires 

 the heat is far more intense. It takes time for the 

 fires to settle down, and the red hot charcoal has 

 to be broken up with iron implements ; the red 

 heat has to penetrate to the very core of the charred 

 branches or pirtions of trees, and when no smoke 

 whatever issues from the fire holes, the firing men 

 place on top of the emheis a thick covering 

 of ashes of paddy husk, which deadens and temp- 

 ers the heat to such an extent that in the course of 12 

 or 15 hours from the time the blazing lumps of char- 

 coal were placed in the fire holes it is safe to place the 

 baskets containing ten kavrs over them. The baskets 

 are lyliiidrical in shape, about 2 feet in diameter and 

 about 3 feet high; they are divided iu two by a sieve 

 partition, and on top of this sieve the tea is placed. 

 The teas brought down from the hills and tea districts 

 have undergone the sun-drying and absorbing process, 

 have been fried m an iron pan, have been twisted by 

 hand af er pas-mg through the nijiid frying process, and 

 on oceaaious are basket-fireil upc unt -y. But the up 

 country process of piepaiatiou is insuHioient to permit 

 of the leaf lieing shipped away to a foreign country ; 

 it has, therefore, after you have purchased it, to be 

 "cured" properly and finally at Twaiutia. Every 

 particle of moisture has to be extracted in the fiual 

 process, previous to packing the leaf in lead-lined che-ts. 

 Wherever Chinese eolonists are sent to — and it is 

 always inland towards the savago frontier or border 

 land — their first idea is to make a clearing, build shan- 

 tes, plant a few sweet potato fields, &c. Then after 

 squatting and settling down, they turn tlieir attention 

 to the hills in neighbourhood, which are covered from 

 bottum to top with trees of all kinds and their jungle. 

 Without entering deeply into border life, we may 

 mention that thesu pioneers are for the most part 

 Hakkas, in fact our old friends the hillmen. 

 They become squatters — camphor producers or 

 charcoal burners according to circumstances. They 

 enter into the business, whatever it may be 

 with zest, whether wood clearing or hunting, 

 and in a generation or two become seniisavage iu 

 their ways and habits. They have to deal with savages, 



and in course of time they out-?avage them, having 

 a poorer idea of honour than the aborigines. They 

 commit treacherous acts on occasions, and feuds arise, 

 lasting often for years. These borderers or hillmen 

 come iu contact wiih the savagej daily, and they 

 act as a sort of buifer between the quiet farmers 

 and villagers in the valleys and plains and the noble 

 owners of the hi ly country. They are therefore looked 

 upon as protectors and are often paid by the people 

 aid the Government to check thi savages when mak- 

 ing raids into Chinese territory, perhaps only lately 

 acquired. — Daily Press Cor. 



I-MPEOVED PrxiuGHS. — It is now some nine months 

 ago since the Director of Public Instruction experimented 

 in several districts with some of Messrs. J. &F. Howard's 

 English Ploughs. The results of the various trials have 

 been satisfactory, judging by the number of natives who 

 have now adopted the modern implement. Several native 

 cultivators have been very successful with them, and later 

 on we hope to be able to give some tabulated returns 

 from different provinces. The ploughs can be drawn by 

 the ordinary country buffalo, and their great merit is that 

 they thoroughly turn over the -soil, thus exposing it to 

 the fortilizinginfluence of the atmosphere, while the native 

 ploughs is really only a one-pronged harrow, simply 

 scratching the soil without turning it over. The ploughs 

 are equally suitable for coconut and other gardens, and to 

 paddy land. In the case of paddy fields the improved 

 plough should be used about six weeks before the ordinary 

 native ploughing time. After the ground has been well 

 turned over by the new plough the old native plough 

 should be used to mix up the soil, like a harrow, and 

 then the cultivation should proceed in the usual native 

 manner. Some of the ploughs may be seen in use at the 

 School of Agriculture, Cinnamon Gardens. — "Oeylon 

 Advertiser." 



Jaffna Native Resoheoes. — Take care of your pence, and 

 your poands will take care of themselves, is a trite old 

 adage, and yet contains the very essence of practical wis- 

 dom, holding good under all circumstances, and worthy 

 to be remembered by all classes of our community. We 

 wish to direct the attention of our readers, and of those 

 in authoriiy to the gradual failure of our smaller sources 

 of income which at one time in the Province went along 

 way to increase our revenue. Thus the export of chauks, 

 palmyra-timber, fish fins, hides, and ghee, honey, horns, 

 bones and oils of sorts were at one time a brisk and profit- 

 able trade iu the Province. In preparation of these 

 articles, and iu sorting them some have been so careless 

 and others have been scamping and adulterating them that 

 importers have sought other places to get the genuine 

 article, and thus our traders have been penny wise and 

 pouud foolish It is painful to observe how the export 

 of most of these articles iu the Province is left in the 

 hands of Chetties and Moormen, while our coiintr3'meti 

 fold their hands, and cry that all the money goes into 

 the hands of strangers. The fact is our young pcojjle feel 

 ashamed to be seen as they think dirtying their finders 

 with fish fins and beech-de-mar and think such occup- 

 ation must be left either to their aged relatives or to the 

 Chinese who come and settle in the Province derive a pro- 

 fitable trade, and go back to their country and settle them- 

 selves there as merchants, while a poorer relative is seut 

 to take his place. The prep 'ration of beech-de-mar is so 

 simple and the catching of the fish is such an easy task 

 and requires not a large outlay of money that we are sur- 

 prised th.at the trade is left entirely to the Chinese ; more 

 especially as the article at Colombo commands a good price. 

 Such localities as Kalmunai and Ariallai, so very close to 

 the town are the fishing ponds where the Chinese settle 

 themselves. And yet very few of our young people know 

 auythiug of their doings or can speak with certainty of 

 the manner iu whicli the fish is cured and the habits of 

 their life. The desire for Government employment even 

 on five or ten Rupees to prove that they know English 

 aud are anglieized is the secret of the reluctance for any- 

 thiiur like labor though that labor is certain to give inde- 

 pendence and be a blessing to others whom we could 

 comply. — Jaffna " Patriot." 



