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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1886, 



to whom I supplied croton-oil seed that it is an- 

 swering well as sliade and shelter and gives a quick 

 return which heljis to pay expenditure until cacao 

 comes into bearing. Anyone who wishes to see how 

 croton-oil trees shade will answer with cacao should 

 come to Watagama, visit Maria, Goonambil and this 

 estate. On the latter cacao is planted 10 f. 10 and a 

 line of croton Ti feet apart up between each line of 

 cacao ; so croton lines are 10 feet apart or about 8{}0 

 trees to the acre : from plants 6 inches high planted 

 in September 1884 I got this year 2 cwt. per acre — as 

 soon as the croton trees get larger I shall by 

 degrees lake out trees until I have a distance of 20 feet 

 apart or lox'iO. 



As regards your correspondent who writes that it 

 makes coolies sick to work among croton and that 

 nativesdo not even use the wood for cooking — this I 

 can by personal experience contradict. I as well as coolies 

 on this estate work daily among Jthc crotons and we 

 are all in good health. In January last I cut off lower 

 branches for ;i to 1 feet from the ground and I can 

 assure your correspondents both Tamil and Sinhalese 

 come daily and carry off the wood for their cooking 

 and with my permission. 



Tea. — I am glad to say tea is a great success in our 

 district and there is some fine tea now on nearly all our 

 estates ; from our old tea we can get our 600 lb. per 

 acre— Cinch plants planted in December 18Si are now 

 from 3 to 4^ ft. high ; one on this estate I measured 4 

 ft. 11 inches. On some estates the tea is topped as soon as 

 there isred wood 84 inches above ground. 



Cinchona. — We have some very fine cinchona in our 

 district giving good returns, especially so on Raxawa 

 estate. 



Annatto. — One estate has planted a good deal of this 

 product, which is doing well. 



Cardamoms, Pepper and Ginger are doing well here. 

 —Yours truly, J. HOLLOWAY. 



Tea in Maskef.iya, — The Maskcliya " flats, " 

 which at one time promised to make the fortune 

 of their proprietors in coii'ee, now look even more 

 promising under tea and afford abetter assurance 

 of permanency. Peria Maskeliya in this way is 

 likely to give its HOC or 700 lb. of tea lent per 

 acre, while from Bitterne off a comparatively small 

 acreage in bearing, the fortunate proprietor hopes to 

 gather as much as :iO,000 lb. this season and doulde 

 that next year. But even higher up, in Dimbula, 

 we hear of estimates of a return of liOO to 700 lb. 

 per acre. It is strange how entirely free of grub 

 is the same land under tea that seemed alive 

 while coifee was available to be attacked. White- 

 ants bear the same relation to tea — that is at 

 a low elevation — that grub did to coffee, and dur- 

 ing the present dry season, a good deal of mis- 

 chief from white-ants has been experienced, es- 

 pecially on weak plants or trees, in the Kelani 

 valley. It is piobable that the Assam plan of 

 clearing out and burning off all timber, so as to 

 leave no receptacle for anls on the land, may 

 have to be followed in our lower districts. 



Pj.niiBAoo. — We noticed a short time back 

 the deputation of Dr. King, of the Geological 

 Department, to report on the probability of 

 obtaining water by means of artesian wells in the 

 neighbourhood of Vi/.agapataui. We now learn that 

 he lias expressed an opinion that there is very 

 little chance of this ever being successful in that 

 district, P>ut Dr. King has made an excursion to 

 Gallikona, where he is said to have made some 

 important discoveries as to the mineral wealth of 

 the district, and a rej)Ort on the subject is to be 

 published after his return to Calcutta. The exist- 

 ence of iilnmbago in large quantities is pretty well 

 established, as it is eonunonly used by the local 

 ])otters for glaring earthenware. Some traces of 

 (;old are also said to have been discovered within 

 (J mile of the cantonment ; but Dr. King's report 



must be awaioed for full particular.?. — Indian A(jri- 

 cuhiiriat. [If plumbago in quantity, unmixed with 

 rocky particles, is discovered, it will be a new de- 

 parture in India. The existence of plumbago and 

 its use as a glaze for pottery are nothing new. 

 Ceylon is, as yet, the only country where large 

 masses of perfectly pure plumbago are found. 

 —Ed. 



GovEHNMENT WHITEWASH. — Clean looking buildings 

 around a farm add very much to its appearance, and 

 for cheapness nothing equals whitewash. We give 

 below the recipe for making what is know-n as 

 "Government Whitewash." because the White House 

 is annually washed with it : To make five gallons of 

 brilliant stucco whitewash for buildings, inside and 

 out, takes six quarts of clean lumps of well-burnt 

 stone lime ; slack with hot water a covered tub to 

 keep in tlie steam. It should then be passed 

 through a fine sieve to obtain the flower of lime; add 

 one-fourth of a pound of burnt alum pulverized, one 

 pound of sugar, three pints of rice flour, made into 

 a thin, well boiled starch or jelly, and one pound 

 of glue, dissolved in hot water. This may be applied 

 cold on inside work, but for outside work ti should 

 be applied warm. A whitewash thus made is said 

 to be more brilliant than plast of Paris, adiv to 

 retain its brilliancy many years. — It should be put 

 on with a common painter's brush, a second cost 

 being applied after the first is well dried — Hiira} 

 Calijonnaii, Jan. 188(5. 



Salt Unfit for Food. — The following ad- 

 vertisement is said to have recently emanated from 

 the India Office : — " Notice is hereby given, that 

 the Government of India are prepared to grant a 

 reward not exceeding ,5,000rs. to the inventor or 

 discoverer of a satisfactory process for rendering 

 salt unfit for human consumption, whilst still leav- 

 ing it fit tor use by cattle and as manure, or for 

 industrial purposes. The main conditions are : (a) 

 that the cost of the process must be moderate, not 

 exceeding about four annas a rnauud ; and (h) that 

 the preparation must be such that edible salt can- 

 not be easily extracted from it by any of the or- 

 dinary processes in use amongst native saltworkers. 

 It several good processes be suggested, the highest 

 award will be giveti to the inventor of the process 

 which may appear to Government to be the most 

 satisfactory in all respects, and a smaller propor. 

 tionate reward will be granted for the next best 

 process. A collection of papers bearing on the 

 subject will be supplied on npplication at the Re- 

 venue Department of the India Office.'' Can it be 

 true that the policy of retaining the salt duty has 

 forced the Government of India into such a false 

 position as this? Wliat an opportunity tor the 

 preachers ot sedition in India ! " Here is the pater- 

 wal English Government seeking to provide means 

 cherehy the beasts that perish may have their ne- 

 nessary modicum of salt free of duty, while we 

 human beings, if we should attempt to satisfy our 

 craving by sharing the salt which our cattle are 

 not denied, are doomed to run the risk of poison- 

 ing, or at the least, to find that the salt is ren- 

 dered worthless, in order that we may be com- 

 pelled to pay a tax on an article so essential to 

 health." Here is a text tor the anti-English Bahu ! 

 Of course there is the argument that the salt tax 

 is an essential source of revenue, with w'hich the 

 Government cannot dispense. But if the (iovern- 

 ment is reduced to such a dilemma that the re- 

 tention of the tax hampers agriculture, and its 

 abolition threatens bankruptcy, what shall we say 

 of the authorities who voluntarily gave up a source 

 ot revenue in the cotton duties to humour a 

 " free trnde " whim, and so did no good to any 

 body, while retaining a salt tax which is productive 

 ot so much h,arm — physical, moral and )>olitical ? — 

 Cnhnii'K ami India. 



