6i4 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886. 



♦ 



To t/ie FaTUov of the " Cenhn Observer." 



THE AGKICULTUEAL VALUE OF COIB 



DUST: ALLEGED BLIGHT ON COCONUT 



PALMS. 



Colombo, 20th Jan. 188G. 



Dear Sm, — In re communieatious that appeared 

 in the coluuins of your paper concerning wliat 

 Mr. Symons is said to have stated before a 

 Conimitttee of tlie Legislative Council as regards 

 the worthlessness of coir dust, and his subsecjuent 

 explanation, I have only today seen one extract 

 taken over from your contempoiary the " Examiner " 

 appearing in your last night's issue, and I have 

 no hesitation in saying that I heartily endorse 

 every word that correspondent has said, and would 

 gladly abide by Mr. Jardine's decision whether coir 

 dust is so utterly worthless as Mr. Symons tries 

 to make out. 



I have also recently heard that some large 

 coconut estates in the Western Province appear 

 to be afflicted with a kind of blight denuding 

 the branches of all their leaves and making the 

 appearance of the tree quite unlike its ordinary 

 appearance. I don't want to raise any alarm, but 

 a proprietor of a very large estate in the Negombo 

 district stated that in his experience, counting 

 over very many years, he has seen nothing similar 

 to this. Have you heard anything of it ? I trust 

 now that Mr. Jardine is located in about the 

 eentrel of a large and important district, he will, 

 if he observes anything that betokens the approach 

 of any blight, sound a note of warning in time. — 

 Yours truly, AGRICULTURIST. 



[We have not heard of the specific attack 

 mentioned, but the coconut palm has always been 

 subjected to attacks from beetles and occasionally 

 from locusts and leaf-eating moths. We should readily 

 publish details of the new blight it sent to us.— Ed.] 



TEA-SEED OIL ? 



Maskeliya, •25th .Tan. I88I;. 



De*r Sir, — Oil is made from tea-seed in China, 

 and I hear that coolies are making it for their 

 own use on estates. 



The question is, would it pay estates to make 

 oil from tlieir tea-seed '? Before long there will be 

 a Yery large quantity of it on many places in 

 Ceylon. Taking it from the trees would relieve 

 them very much, as it could be done before the 

 seed was quite ripe and long before it would drop 

 naturally. If it would pay the expense of gather- 

 ing and making, and give a moderate profit, surely 

 it is worth while trying ; another advantage would 

 be, we should be relieved of the large quantity of 

 seedlings there will be on many tea estates in the 

 island.— Yours truly, INQUIRER.^ 



[Unfortunately it is the least valuable varieties 

 of tea which seed earliest and most copiously. 

 To get the maximum of oil the seeds ought to be 

 left to ripen fully, and this would involve rapid 

 exhaustion of the soil. As it is not likely that 

 growing tea merely for oil will pay : the better course 

 would be to get the weeders to remove the blossoms. 

 Immature seed, smaslied, is readily eaten by cattle. 

 The author of the letter says in a private note : — 

 " Enclosed a letter, re oil from tea-seed. I know 

 it is a good oil, for we used it for our binnacle 

 lights, on the voyage home from China, in pre- 

 ference to coconut oil. An oil mill on an estate 

 woulil not take up much room, and if making it 

 would pay, it woulil be another product or rather j 

 not quite all our eggs in one basket." — Ei>.J 1 



SALE OF CEYLON CBOTON SEEDS. 

 Golconda, Haputale, 80th Jan. 1886. 

 Dear Sib, — The undernoted sales of eroton-oil 

 seeds may encourage some, and convince others 

 that as yet croton cultivation is not to be 

 : despised : — 



Date of per cwt. From 



Sale. cwt. q. lb. Golcor.da. 



10th Dec. 8 3 27 at 59s „ 



« 2 „ 573 

 2 14 „ 4,Ss 

 1886. 

 I 8th Jan. 9 3 17 „ e7s „ 



„ 1 1 13 „ 5.5s 



., 35 2 11 „ 7OS&7IS Wiharatenne 



„ 5 2 14 at 55s 



As T. A. quoted croton seeds at Sfis and 40s as 

 being the market rates on .^rd December, the above 

 sales are sullicient proof that Ceylon can produce 

 a good article even in crotons. 



Messrs. Cumberbatch & Co. were the curing 

 agents. — Y'ours faithfully, 



JAMES WESTLAND. 



THE BLACKSTONE ROLLER AND THOMPSON'S 

 " CHALLENGE." 



Dikoya, 3rd February 18S6. 



Dear Sir,— Now that the Blackstone roller is 

 claiming such notoriety, it would be as well for the 

 purchasers and the public to know, if Mr. Barber is 

 prepared to give a guarantee with each roller that 

 there is no infringement of patents, and if in the 

 event of Thompson or anyone else putting in a claim, 

 he, Mr. Barber, is willing to take all responsibility 

 on himself. Mr. Barber says, Thompson has not 

 pretended that he has invaded his rights ; if so, 

 why not give to each purchaser a guarantee ? 

 Can you inform me what claim can be put in, 

 should it be found that the machine is an infringe- 

 ment ? — Yours faithfully, TEA. 



[Being asked for a legal opinion, we can only refer 

 our correspondant to Mr. Barber, who being a 

 lawyer as well as a machinist ought to know what he 

 is about. Thompson, if he really believes that his 

 patent rights have been invaded, will doubtless claim 

 a royalty, but to ask us to specify the amount is 

 what the engineer of the " Challenge " would 

 characterize as " peculiar in the extreme." — En.] 



Tea Trees wrrnoi'T Tap-roots. — In the present 

 unsettled state of knowledge in regard to what is best 

 for the tea plant, here and there a bolil soul steps out 

 from " the ruck," and astonishes with the brilliancy 

 of his ideas. One of these advanced thinkers has 

 lately been promulgating the idea that a tea plant 

 without a tap-root is a cumberer of the ground, no 

 matter how well it may apjiarently be growing. He 

 has not been afraid, eithei-, to act upon his belief and 

 put his theory into practice. Accordingly all plants 

 with a peculiar habit, which he says is commou to 

 those whose tap-root have gone, a droop in the 

 branches, I understand, — have been rooted out on 

 those estates to w hich his influence extends. This 

 may be right enough : and although few^ may have 

 tlie courage necessary to follow such an example, 

 still no one will mind the other fellow trying it for 

 himself. A similar attitude of mind is evinced towards 

 the much too pai'tieular man who has lately been 

 uprooting good tea, because the lines are not quite 

 straight ! That is a refinement of planting which, 

 like the proverbial straw on the surface, tells of 

 tile flowing of the tide of prosperity. It is neither 

 a hard-up nor struggling man who could afford 

 to do that. — Cor. 



