468 



TI!S TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January r, 1886. 



steamer, the " Madras," and she rims between 

 Negaimtam and liaugoon regularly, and also the 

 ii. I. S. N. Company and the A. Cle. 4,000 coolies 

 arrived last month ; when they come to Burma 

 lliey seldom leave it now. 



1 am getting on very well, and now my success 

 is an established (act. CoflVc in perfect health, 

 no leaf -disease, and 1 shall li.ive a crop this com- 

 ing year. Cacao doing well since I got up the 

 shade. Tea growing nicely ; also divi-divi and croton- 

 oil trees. Liberian coffee simply splendid. Collee 

 now beginning to cover the ground and showing 

 bud already. I have three acres ot paddy and aliout 

 live acres of maize (American nurize). The paddy 

 takes me up to the neck, a fine crop now showing 

 seed. The maize is only just sown, it is a cold 

 weather crop here. I am to sow a few acres in 

 hemp, and am to put down about 20,000 betel-nuts, 

 Tongoo variety, that fetches ElO per cwt. I have 

 betel-nuts now growing first-rate ; also />'(>(( Orel- 

 Iditu, oranges and limes, doorians and guavas. 

 I'lantains for shade, sjdendid plantains. Chestnuts 

 grow well ; also gamboge of two kinds. I have 

 sown three maunds of best indigenous and hybrid 

 tea seed ; also six lb. ot croton-oil trees sent from 

 William of Henaratgoda. I am to put in more cacao ; 

 am oitly waiting for the seed. I am exceedingly 

 well pleased with myself and am in excellent health. 

 I am a brave Volunteer, have put in ray 29 

 drills already. We are about .39 strong, a spirited 

 little band, commanded by Lieut. Palmer and Capt. 

 Duke: Duke is Commander-in-Chief, and we have 

 sworn that we will defend our beloved Queen and 

 country even to death. 



I trust by the time you get this letter that 

 Upper Burnia may be annexed and that the well- 

 deserving Chief Commissioner, Mr. Bernard, may be 

 elected as Lieut. -Governor of British Burma, a better 

 num could not be appointed ; he is a regular go- 

 ahead man, all energy and perseverance. 



THE MACIIINEKV. 



Wc .would draw attention to an advertiseiaent ni 

 another column to a now patent tea sitting and sort- 

 ing machine, the invention of Mr. Mudge, a tea planter 

 of long experience, it is styled the " Hinge and Lever," 

 which is most appropriate as it carries with it an idea 

 ot its construction; we have seen specification and 

 drawings of the machine, and, so far as we are able 

 to judge froiu these, it appears to us to bo a very 

 good tiling in every way, being simple in design aud 

 offering altogether many advantages. 'Not tlie least 

 of its recommendations is the variety of \vays it iiiay 

 be employed for sorting tea so as to suit individual 

 taste or circumstances, for in consequence of it being 

 a double row of trays, each two deep, with remov- 

 able sieves, it becomes apparent that any size mesh 

 of netting may be placed and used as desired, so tliat 

 no hard-and-fast line assortment is laid down. One 

 row used iu eoniunctiou with the other it is capable 

 ot giving five grades of tea at one and. the same time 

 or the rough bulk tea fed at upper tray on either 

 side, it will gi\'e three classes of the same from each. 

 The trays, which are three-sided, work on a level, 

 having all their four sides shut iu. This the patentee 

 claiuis will ensure athorough sieving of each class of tea, 

 and we should be inclined to think so too. When the 

 traya have become fairly full of well assorted teas, they 

 are easily and rapidly discharged of their contents by 

 tlie very simple operation of unkookiiig a lever, which 

 causes them to fall to a slant, being secured on hinges 

 (iuside a suspended frame) at the back end, and the 

 IVuut ends ilrop iu front, aud this is so ingeniously 

 contrived that tin' lever does not go to aud fro with 

 (lie quick rtciiiiocatiiig luolion of tlie sifter at work, 

 ho that it does not become necessary, or even desirable 

 to throw the belting on to the loose pulley and so stop 

 tlie Miachiue for tliis purpose. There is ample space 

 lielweeii the irays foi- cleaning the netting, and the 



tea on each and all-of the sieves is open to manipul- 

 ation, neither for feeding, discharging, or cleaning the 

 netting need the machine be stopped. The •'Hinge 

 and Lever " sorter is <lesigned to do a large amount of 

 work jier diem and is well adapted tor big gardens. 

 We believe it will do its work well ami tliat without 

 havhig first to pass the tea through a bri^akiug machine, 

 as a man is able to stand alongside, crushing the tea 

 on the trays as much, or as little, as need be. M'e 

 uuderstand that arraugeraeuts iiave been luidc with 

 a well known firm of engineers to make these machines, 

 and arc also informt'd that one will sliortly be on view 

 in Calcutta. Planters and .all others iutcreste.l in tlie 

 manufacture of tea having the opportunity of seeing 

 it would do well not to lost^ the chance of doing so. 



There are sifters witii the trays on a fixe,! incline, 

 aud probably sifters also with the trays or sieves that 

 work on a level, but a machine such as Mr. Mudge^s, 

 with the trays working horizontally combining the 

 power to bring them to a slant at pleasure for pur- 

 pose of discharge is quite a new idea, and a capital 

 one. The price, all things considered, is very moderate. 

 Jtessrs. Mitchell, Reid & Co., are the Calcutta Agents. 



With regard to an advertisement which appears on 

 another page a correspondent from Ceylon writes 

 us : — " I have had the pleasure of seeing another of 

 Mr. W. Jackson's new machines at work, namely his 

 Venetian Dryer. Like many others in the island I 

 have hitherto had imidicit faith in the Siroccos, be- 

 lieving that iu simplicity and eflicieucy of working 

 they could hardly be surpassed, but I now say. the 

 Venetian certainly crrries the ]ialni. It woulil do you 

 good to see how well this m-at little machine gets 

 through its work. ''The cool-e pulls forward a lirawer- 

 shaped sort of feeding and drying surface aud on tins 

 he spreads a charge of leaf and pushes the drawer 

 back again, aud waits for about 'Jk minutes (during 

 which he can stoke or take away the dry tea). Then 

 he begins near the bottfim of the machine fiy pull- 

 ing a handh' which, by au ingenious arraiigeim-nt, 

 working similar to the action of the Venetian blind 

 of a window, the drying surface is openc'd up. and 

 the dry tea is delivered down info a tiolly, which, 

 when full, is withdrawn just like a charge of leaf 

 from the well-known Excelsior Roller. *' Having shut 

 this handle he moves the one next above it, c=iusing 

 the tea nearly dry to descend on to the surface just 

 emptied, and in succession he moves the next one 

 higher u\>, and so on till the charge he i>iit in 2.V 

 n'inutes before is delivered down one surface, when 

 a fresh one is inserted. All this is doue in much 

 less lime than it takes nie to describe it, and the per- 

 fect way the tea is turned over on these surfaces, can 

 only be well understood by those who have spen it 

 at work. A No. 3 Sirocco stands idle beside this 

 Venetian, aud, if I mistake not, is likely to remain 

 311. Mr. Jack.son has been long iu coming forward 

 with his driers, but the opinion here is, he has at last 

 made a leap past everybody else."— //. t^- C Jfail, 



MrrsnuooMS. — A corresjioudeut asks : — " Could 

 you tell me it there is any easy way of distinguish- 

 ing edible muslirooms from the poisonous ones '? I 

 have mushroom beds where the mushrooms have 

 just started, and, though it seems pretty certain 

 they are the real ones, yet it is just as well to be 

 perfectly certain." The article " Mu.^hroonl " in 

 the Encijclopieilia liritannia gives details regarding 

 the difi'erences between edible and poisonous mush- 

 rooms, which are too lengthy for us to quote, but 

 the following may help our correspondent : — 



To summarize the characters of a true mnshi-oom : 

 — it grows only iu pastures; it is of small size. dry. 

 and with nucliangeable Hesh ; tho cap has a frill ; the 

 gills are free from the stcni. the spores brownhlack 

 or deep purple-black iu colour, and the stem solid or 

 slightly pithy. When all these char.acters are taken 

 ti>gi:ther no other ninsbroom like fungus— and nearly a 

 thousand snccios grow in f^ritaiu — r^ui he confounded 

 with it. I Seo page 172. 



