360 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 2, 1885. 



To t^oT.T.EC'T THE Odor OF FLOWERS.— Uoses and 

 flowers containing perfumed oils maybe niiulc to yield 

 their aromatic qualities by steeping tlie petals i^u a 

 saucer of water, and setting it in tlie sun.^ The 

 water should be soft, or rain water, and a sufficient 

 quantity allowed for evaporation. lu a few days a 

 film will cover the water. This is the essential oil of 

 the flower: every particle is impregintcil with the 

 odor. It must he taken up carefully and put iu tiny 

 vials, which .should remain open till all the remain- 

 ing water is evaporatc'd, A few drops of this will 

 perfume glove boxes, apparel, etc., and will last a 

 long time. — Soi/ihern Planter. 



l'noi.iT.\iii.n Fruit Ci'i.TrRK.— Jfr. Watkins, a 

 practical fruit grower, in a paper read before the 

 members of the Herefordshire Chamber of Agri- 

 culture, cited two successful cases of Apple growing 

 last sea.sou that came under his own notice. In one 

 case a small orchard of about three acres was recently 

 planted with standard Apple trees of good sorts for 

 table and kitchen use. The trees were properly 

 cared for and manured, and as some .sorts were found 

 to be growing too freely they were root-pruned. 

 The result was a "magnificent crop of fruit last season, 

 which realized about £lii per acre after iiayiii? all 

 expenses. In an exposed situation plaut rather thickly, 

 say IS feet to S) feet apart ; but if you have a sheltered 

 situation, with a good deep and generous soil, give 

 the trees plenty of room — 30 feet or more. Apple 

 or Pear trees may be planted alternately with Plums ; 

 the Plum trei! is a much sluirter-livjil tree than the 

 Apple or Pear, and comes into hearing sooner, thus 

 bringing in a return till the other trees get fairly 

 grown. A strong grower and a small grower may be 

 placed alternately each way. Yet another plan is to 

 plant them in hexagonal form instead of square: 

 that is, instead of the trees lieing exactly opposite 

 eaeli other in adjoining rows, they are midway, thus 

 giving more room to each individual tree without 

 increasing the distance between or iu the rows. In 

 filling up old orchards never plant in the old holes ; 

 it is better to get the trees planted irregularly than 

 to do this. Beep digging is essential in planting; 

 but the trees should not be put in too deeply. The 

 want of care in picking and iiacking the fruit is a 

 frequent cause of loss. Mr. ^\'atkins prefers autumn 

 planting, except in cold wet sods, where he would 

 plant in spring, not later than .March.— (.'rt)v/f/ifrs' 

 Chronicle. 



(^EVLON Tea at Hkih Alttti'des.— AVe have very 

 encouraging news of tea at high altitudes. AVe believe 

 the returns from Abbotsford this year will be most satis- 

 factory as to quantity, whilst the young )il.aces near 

 Nuwara Eliyaare giving returns far in excess of previous 

 expectations. As far as can be judged from the 

 evidence before us, we see no reason to suppose that 

 estates situated as high as, or higher than, (i.nOO feet 

 will give a very much reduced return of leaf per 

 acre than tho.se at sea level. Some time ago it was 

 thought that the lower estates would give quantity— 

 up to 700 lbs. per acre— but not the best quality, 

 whereas the very high estates might be expected to 

 yield a tea of surpassing flavor, though not in great 

 abundance. So far as we are .able to argue from 

 actual facts before us, the superiority of highgrowu 

 tea has not as yet been very forcibly demonstrated 

 to us, though we are far from denying that it will 

 eventually establish its pre-eminence. But, as we gain 

 experience from the growt'i of the industry in the 

 island, one thing is becoming more and more plain 

 every day, and that is that, the small yields to be 

 expected from tea grown at very high altitudes are 

 certain to be very much exceeded, and that the tea 

 l>lant can be grown to pay handsom(dy at almost 

 any pos.sibli^ .altitude in the' i.sland. Yields of 800 lb. 

 an acre at the elevation of Nuwara Kliya may, and 

 doubtless will, be events of rare occurence. Iiut we 

 confidently look forward to .500 and /OO lb. an 

 acre as what may be cxpr-cted from carefully planted, 

 well sheltered, land, no matter what the altitude. 

 The slowness with which the extreme elasticity— if 

 we may use such a word iu this connection — of the 



tea plant has been realized by planters in Ceylon is 

 KOiji.'.vhat curious, as we have remarked before. Though 

 it w.is known to flourish in the hot steamy plains 

 of Assam, on the bleak, almost frozen, heights of the 

 Darjeeling hills under the very .shadow of the ice- 

 clad Himalayas, yet we in Ceylon were some time iu 

 realizing that it could be sucessfully grown, and be 

 made to produce aliuudantly, at aui/ altitude iu the 

 island. The fact is only now lieginuing to dawn upon 

 us, and men win are busy planting up coffee land at 

 from 5,000 to U.OOO feet with the more hardy tea 

 plant are not now regarded as madmen, as they 

 were a short time ago. In the same way the suitability 

 of [Tva for the cultivation of tea, for a long time 

 denied, is now at last becoming .accepted as an 

 incoutrovertihle fact, which time alone can effectually 

 prove. There are very few places iu 1,'va where cinchona 

 anil coffee are now cultivated, which are not admirably 

 suited for tea ; and from rainfall returns now before 

 us, many have as well-distributed a fall as the majority 

 of estates on this side of Nuwara Klij'a. — Local 

 '• Times ' ' 



Oban'ge Flower.?. — In a paper recently reail before 

 the New York State Pharmacijutical Association, Mr. 

 Ijemberger stated that he had succeeded in distilling 

 from orange flowers gathered iu Florida and salted down 

 a water comparing favourably with that imported from 

 the south of Europe. As orange trees are now grown 

 abundantly iu Florida the petals are eonsecpieutly 

 plentiful, and he suggests that a new industry siioukl 

 be started iu that .State, in which low priced labour . 

 might be utilized in gathering the blossoms, especially 

 of the wild or bitter orange. — FluuimicrutiaU Jour- 

 nal. 



Tea: The Green Leaf Separator and .Siftinti 

 Macuin'E, which has been patented by Messrs. Fair- 

 weather and Gdruth, of Sembawattie. has been named 

 the '-Success," and seems likely to justify its title. 

 The machine, in its first trial with rolled leaf, worked 

 most satisfactorily, finishing off one fill of Jackson's 

 large "Excelsior" roller iu five minutes, dropping 

 the fine leaf iu the centre, and the larger at the 

 sides. A large machine is now iu course of con- 

 struction iu . Colombo, capable of beiug driven by 

 steam-power, and others will be taken in hand for hand 

 or steam. Mr. Gilruth thus writes of the machine.' — 

 The machine will be the means of reducing the 

 tea-house cooly staff by i to 5; on a larger 

 estate in greater proportion. It will also be a great 

 saving of labor iu this way: when the roll in its 

 separated state is fired, it will not require so much 

 sitting, and therefore accomplish at the same time 

 the aim and object of all planters, i ,., preserving 

 as much as possible the bloom on the tea. It also 

 offers other advantages. The roll can be separated 

 into three different grades, and in such a marked 

 style. A tea-house manager, with care and knowledge 

 of his work, will be able to accomplish with ease a 

 long-wished for desire, i. e., to have each and every 

 leaf according to their class of the same uniform 

 outturn in the cup, from being able to ferment each 

 kind separately a long or short time according to 

 his fancy; thus preventing the old inevitable com- 

 plaint being made every time a mistake h.appens in 

 the fermentation, which on many occasions is used 

 and also abused, namely: as follows: — "Oh, I tried 

 to get my course leaf as near an approach to my 

 Pekoe as I could, and just waite I a little too ioug. 

 That is the reason I have such a dull outturn." And 

 then again, on the other haiiil, it has ;i green out- 

 turn. Why y " Oh, because I did not want to sacrifice 

 my Pekoe tor my Pekoe Souchong or Souchong, as 

 the case might be." Perhaps, if he was an under- 

 strapper, anil had no interest to make good tea. as 

 he might think, through not getting a T) per cetn 

 commission, he might try and make any of the above 

 cxcu.scs pass when tlie fault lay oujhis w:uit of juige- 

 ment, or he is perhaps careless or too anxious to get 

 away from bis work. With the .system the "Success " 

 olfc'rs this cannot be done, or it is proof positive 

 that it is due to rarelossDCSs.— Local "Time*." 



