May 1, 1886.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



793 



INSKC'T FI.OWEKS. 



These are attracting more thau usual attention iu 

 Victoria at the present time, owing to the suggestion 

 niaile by Mr. t'. Watt, of Brunswick, to the Minister 

 of Agriculture, that if planted in the Geeloug vineyards 

 the pyrethrum might destroy the phylloxera, with 

 which they were infected. Haron Von Mueller thought 

 that the e.vperimeut ought to be tried, but did not 

 prophesy success. The department immediately sent 

 to England for a supply of seed, which was received 

 about the middle of December. It was announced 

 that some of the seed woidd he raisorl at the Dookie 

 experimental farm, and that any persou wishing to 

 to test the plan in vineyards still infected could obtain 

 a supply of seed from the department. 



Numerous applications were made in re.spouse to 

 this offer. The seed will be distributed also among.st 

 persons who wishtosee if the pl.-int can be profitably 

 grown for commercial purposes. It is understood that 

 a very large trade in the pyrethrum seed i,s done in 

 California, where it is extensively grown for the manu- 

 facture of insect powder. The import.s uf the seed to 

 this colony for the purpose are also large. 



For the information of our readers wi' print some 

 extracts from a paper on the '•Comparative value of 

 various species of Pryrethrum," published in the 1 'a/ci- 

 diaii Eiitnmutoi/isi tor lii'i'.l. "The I'l/rcthmmx are 

 hardy plants which bloom abundantly tlie second year 

 from seed. The powder is prepared from the liall- 

 opeiieJ, flowers gathered during dry weather, and <lried 

 in the shade, under cover; but the process of gathering, 

 drying, and preparing involves so much time that their 

 culture can oly be made profitable where labor is 

 cheap. .Single flowers are much more powerful thau 

 double flowers.'' We may further remark that the 

 herb is worthless as an insecticitle. 



It is not the vapour from the flowers that is poisouous 

 but some non-volatde resinous constituent. It is not 

 suflicient to enclose an iusect in a limited space with 

 a number of the flowers. They must be finely powdered, 

 and the powder must be distributed in such a way 

 that some of it enters the mouth or breathing pores 

 of Ihe insect. It then produces a kind of paralysis. 

 the insect showing sigus of life for many hours after 

 it has lost the power of movement. — Chcutift end 



Jtfl'ffQUt. 



TEA 



TEA. IN CEYLON": THE KELANI VALLEY 

 STOKES. 



Licking forward to the time when I shall have 

 t > jog along with a factory of the " Old .Saving's" 

 typi — wooden flooring, weather-boards, and .shingles 

 — or become the owner of a "Crystal I'alace" like 

 my neighbour on the left, I am longing for the ilay 

 when there may be a concensus of opinion as to the 

 merits of each cla.ss of store. Situated as I am. I have 

 had opportunities of noticing the work done in stores 

 of the cheaper kind, and it has been quite evident 

 during the last twelve months that the best priced 

 tfas from this ^'alley have been made iu them. I 

 have also been able "to form an idea of the labor, 

 and expense attending the erection ef •• Crystal Palace" ; 

 ami what has struck me is the elaborate and costly 

 means adopted to support what, after all, is merely a 

 roof. I eay merely a roof, because the upper storey 

 is not meant to have any heavy weight upon it — it is 

 only intended for the withering of green leaf. • 

 Of this, three tons would be a very unusunl i|Uiut- 

 ity, wlKi-eai our old coffee stores, with stoiK? pillars 

 and wooden posts, often had thousands of bushels of 

 coffee on their upjier floors. All a tea factory re. 

 ciuires is strong hase-tloor to support machinery and 

 with.stand whitc-anis (for this concrete and cement are 

 the best materials), plenty rif withering space, and 

 protection from rain an sun. Now, to supjiort a build- ' 

 ing of this sort iron columns costing K«Ct to lilOO 

 each against wood or stone, or stone alone, costing 

 from KIO to \X2o each, are surely unnccesjary, an<l have 

 nothiug to recommend them to make up for their 

 very groat extra cost. I cinnot help reganling the 

 run upon such iron structures as a " rage" with which 

 the planting, like other communities, is often seized. J 

 80 



It may be said that they are easy of erection, coming 

 out from home complete in every detail. Let any 

 man laboring under such a delusion consult a brother 

 planter who has had to put together one of those stores, 

 or has has to transport its material for two or threo 

 miles where neither water nor wheel trjinsport is avail- 

 able ; 1 venture to say our enf|uiring friend will stick to 

 the old-fashioned stoiu' or timber '' In maTiy parts of 

 the low-country good timber is very .scarce, but enough 

 can generally be got to support the roof of a factorys 

 and, where it cannot, then gel teak from Cnloniho i ; 

 my advice. Let miu .if the "old Saving's t\pe not be 

 led astray by being tuld that the " best is the cheapest 

 in the end"; or be ehafTed into iron by such twaddle as 

 "penny wise anil pound foolish": or (if^ North et untry- 

 nien) ■' love.l bawbees nut wisely, buir too well." 

 That tea estates will not last for ever, or all events 

 that their owners «ill not, may, I thiid<, be taken 

 for a fttctf not as we say in this Vidley. for a d'llkin.^' 

 — Local "'I'imes." 



M.^NtiOKS IN INDIA AND CK.VLON. 



" lUi.< mui liai/i/t't " makes the following ob.servation:* 

 on tin* respective merits of the mango as grown in 

 luilia and Ceylon :— While the people of the Indian 

 cmitinent, especially iu the north, have been complain- 

 ing of .Uarth of mango.'S this year, nature has been 

 boiuitiful to the neighb^'uring islruulers of the south. 

 "There has," .s,ays the Veiihni I'ntr'iut , '' been a large, 

 crop of this fruit ; which means th.-it the poorer peopl<! 

 will make an extra nunl a .lay." This in .lafl'na. 

 abundance indeed, has bad the usual cH'ect of making 

 the .Jaffna fastidious. The complaint now is that the 

 fruit IS not good enough — not half so good as that 

 iu the Western province. The .Jaffna mango is .said 

 to be somewhat of an acrid taste. Indeed, this is said 

 to be the case with most fruits in that part of the 

 island, which are large but not delicious, " Oar soil," 

 s.ays the writer, '• perh.aps contains too much of saline 

 mater ; and our fruit-trees, instead of being left to 

 grow as well .as they can, recjuirca lot of cattle-manure. 

 But this is just what is not done. The fact is, the 

 working peo])Ie do not care for the ex(]uisite delicacy 

 of garden cultivations, but only seek .something to 

 satisfy hunger if only the article be not absolutely 

 nau.seating," We suspect, however, these Ceylon eaters 

 to be indifferent coiuioi-^-^fi'i's. We speak from no 

 continental affection or northern assumption of supe- 

 riority. In reg:iril to fruits and farinacea, we arc not 

 disposed to make any assumption. On the sutiject 

 of the mango in special, wc are always prepared to 

 defer to Ceylon.* That, in our northern tradition, is 

 the original hihihit of the uiango pilfcre.l by the 

 great Havana from the orchard of the Olym])ian .lov(., 

 Indra. '^^'e ourselves, sixteen years ago, routed an 

 Indian Prince in dtirbar assembled, who prate 1 of the 

 perfection of his mnngiies and insisted upon, his coun- 

 try being the heaven-ordained home of the fruit, by 

 relating cireumstantially the origin of the nftngo among 

 us, as handed down from father to son from timo 

 immemorial, thus, by changing the xcnnc from the 

 continent to the is!and, cutting away the ground 

 under the proud chief's pretension. The tradiiion, 

 however, is not necessarily conclusive of the fact, and 

 it is still open to the learned to determine the first 

 hnhiUil of the mango. To .all i:itents and purposes, 

 India — the main lantl — is now the mango comitry. On 

 the hypothesis of its Ceylon origin, there seems to 

 have come a ilegeneracy over the plant iu the i.sland, 

 by the confe.ssion of our Jaffna friends, the fruit mi 

 the coast neareast to India is .a most vicious one. 

 AUIiou>,di preference is given to the outcome of the 

 orchards iu the interior, we su])pose the best Ceylon 

 fruit will not compare with the m.ango in .Southern 

 India or in liombay, to say nothing of the perfection 

 attained in IJengal Presidency. The insular taste ap- 

 pears to us to be gross. Cnjfnn i'atiiitt is absolutely 

 iu rajitures over the coarse sweetn. sa of the jak. Our 

 ciuitemporary writes: — "The j.ack in size will beat 

 out any irr the Sinhalese country, but those nice 1-ngs 

 of honey, when the fruit is ripe, combining all the 



