June i, i8s6.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



«i5 



yard. Selected lowcountry tiiiibc.-, however, is iinicb 

 liciwier tliaoi the ordinary forest growth of the hills. 

 All acre of brdinarv hill forest will not probably 

 turn out more thiin" from 'ilW to S.'iO, say 22'i, cubic 

 yard.^ to the acre, of wood fit for fuel, or 12l>,000 

 "lb. Allowing 2 lb. of wood for every lb. of Tea 

 cored, it will take an acre of forest annually for 

 every C:i.lK«i lb. made Tea. Given an estate of .100 

 acres, yielding -100 lb. Tea per acre, it will take 

 practically 2 acres of forest every year to cure the 

 Tea. 'Jo supply an ordinary estate of 300 acres yield- 

 inn what is now the recognised average yield of 

 C'cvlon Tea, viz., 400 lb., it will he necessary to 

 keep replanting quick-growing trees every year. 

 The value or heating power of the fuel will vary- 

 much, and ditTer much in weight, according to the 

 limber planted or growing naturally on the land, 

 and the cost of cutting and carriage will also 

 vary with the conditions of eacli estate, but on no 

 estate where timber is available shoijd fuel cost 

 more than Kl per cubic yard of say GOO lb., 

 which should cure half its weight in Tea, giving 

 one-third of a cent of a Rupee per lb. as the cost 

 of fiieWl)ut to this n.ust be added the value of the 

 land liTul in reserve. Fifty acres of forest held in 

 reserve means the loss of a crop of 20,000 lb. tea 

 were it in cultivation. Coal is at present the only 

 substitute for wood, and at the current price of coal 

 in Colombo, a ton of coal will cost from RSO to KIO 

 per ton on tlie estate, according to the station at 

 which it is delivered, and the carriage to estate added, 

 the value of coal compared to wood is as three of 

 wood to one of coal, which will give the following 

 results : — 



•1 Yds. wood = 1 Ton weight. 

 12 „ „ =1 Ton of coal as is -I to 1. 

 A ton of coal will cost E:ir> to II 10, or in other 

 words three times as much as wood, or practically 

 the cost of coal is one cent per lb. of tea against one- 

 third of a cent for wood. Railway rates for trans- 

 port of fuel must be lowered for coal, and patent com- 

 pressed fuel will doubtless lie delivered in Colombo at 

 greatly reduced rates ; but the great difficulty still re- 

 mains — liow are we to get fuel to stores situate in 

 inaccessible* places? Coal is costly and difficult of 

 tram-port ; coke is much more costly and the most 

 destructive to fire bars and heating plates of the 

 dryer of any fuel which can be used. Wood, where it 

 rail be got in abundance, is the cheapest of all fuel, 

 and the easiest managed by an ordinary cooly, but the 

 cost of reserve forest lying idle, especially on smM 

 estates, is a very serious matter. There are few large 

 estates, however, where quick-growing timber may not 

 be I'lanted in ravines, on ridges or on broken land or 

 poor patana. riaiited timber will give at 5 or years 

 old uearly as much fuel from the thinnings ns an acre 

 of ordinal y natural forest. IManted timber is regular 

 pud clo,=ie, and having no trash or soft stulf or "Mousa" 

 iu it, all is available. A natural forest, when the under- 

 wood is taken out, is often little better th.in a scrub 

 with hardly a dozen trees to the acre. The first thing 

 for a tea planter to do is to plant every piece of 

 I'-iisf/: land with quick-growing trees. The cleaning 

 up of old timber on the estate will probably last 

 till the planted trees are fit to utilize. These trees, 

 if not used for fuel, can be used for tea chests 

 made on the estate, far superior to any" imported 

 boxes wo have had yet, 



"Jint to the point"— the fuel of the future is un- 

 doubtedly petroleum, crude petroleum from Upper 

 Burma, or from the Black Sea .should ]5nrma not 

 settle down as soon as we should wish. Petroleum 

 is a natural product or the earth, the origin of 

 which is not yet fully understood, but it is found to 

 be much more abundant and more gener.ally dis- 

 tribntcd than supposed. Fre.sh discoveries gire con- 

 stantly being made, and the uses to which petro- 

 leum is now applied are every day increasing. 

 At the works in connection with the new Bridge 

 over the }tiver Forth (the most wonderful de- 

 velopment of modem Kngineeringj, crude petro- 



" lir. Irvin<; must have come elo.sely in contact with 

 the Irish who have made their way to thc"iuacct'?sible" 

 portions of Canada 1— Ed. 



lenni is used for heating huge masses of iron.* 

 with the result that there is not only a large saving 

 in cost of fuel, but the heat is thoroughly under con- 

 trol, and so equally diffused over the entire surface 

 of the steel, that there is no burning of the plates or 

 unequal heating of the surface. Xow, this is exactly 

 what we want in our tea drying niachinory. All our 

 tea dryers in use rapidly wear out. and are not only 

 costly to* rejjair, but as in the T Sirocco the whole 

 machine has to he taken to pieces to replace the 

 burned plates. This is troublesome and involves 

 stoppage of work in the factory. Messrs. Davies tV; 

 Co. have the model of a T Sirocco on their premises 

 fitted for burning gas. This, of course, is useless on 

 our estates, but a similar arrangement adapted tor tho 

 use of petroleum is what is wanted. Petroleum iu 

 drums or casks is cheap and easy of tr.ansport. Place 

 I he oil in tanks some distance from the factory, so 

 that there would be no danger from fire or explosion. 

 The great advantages to be gained by using petroleum 

 .are a saving in first cost of fuel ; the pi;troleum being 

 in light drums or packages is easy of transport ; heat 

 under perfect control ; lighted or extinguished in a 

 moment ; and great saving hi the wear or burning out 

 of the 'plates of the machine ; perfect cleanliness ; 

 and if jiropcrly arranged, no smoke, and almost entire 

 immunity from risk or firo.f 



I would ask that the manufacturers of the T .•'iroceo, 

 rilessrs. Davidson i^ Co of IJelfast, give special atteu- 

 tion to this matter of fuel. It is a serious one iu 

 many districts. The writer of this article has seen 

 in America not only crude petroleum Used in the boiler 

 of an engine, but thu natural gas given off from the 

 wells. Wo must in Ceylon at once utilise the natural 

 resources of Upper Burma, and assist iu the develop- 

 ment of that great country. 



In connection with the question of fuel on a tea 

 estate, as important almost is the question of "power" 

 for machinery. No tea planter can produce eheaji 

 and good tea unless he has good machinery and 

 " power " to drive. The estates which have the best 

 machinery will lead the way. No machinery will 

 do its work efficiently unless under "control ' and 

 any tea roller, no matter whose roller it be to do 

 good and fast work must be driven at a good rato 

 of speed; and that speed to do good work must be 

 continuous and equal, but under perfect control. 

 All rollers, like Prater's, Barber's and Thomson's, 

 should be driven at a high rate of speed, and 1 

 would warn every tea planter to be most careful in the 

 selection of the site for his buildings. Get water 

 power if possible— carry your leaf any distance to 

 get water power. A steam engine is unquestionably 

 and undoubtedly the most perfect inaehine power 

 we have, and far preferable to the most mod 

 era invention in turbines; but a ten horse-power 

 engine will consume five cwt. coal in a working 

 day of eight or nine hours, which means an 

 annual expenditure of Ka.OOO for coal, or its 

 equivalent in wood if it be got on the estate R 1000. 

 I'-very Tea Planter must take seriously into consider- 

 ation the ([uestion of fuel in coiiuection with tli(^ certain 

 fall ill prices of Tea. Un many estates, it will simply 

 mean the difference between a profit and a serious loss. 



Jamks Ihvin'e. 



TiiK BuLKixK OK Inwan Te.\. — It is claimed for 

 Ceylon, and is admitted by the London brokers, 

 that sorting in Ceylon is much more even than 

 ill India. — Jndiaii Ten (Jazc.lU. 



Ci;vi,0N Tu.Ns. — The Trade Organ, the Produce Mar- 

 l.ct Ucpicir, spcakin", <if Ceylon teas, says that tho 

 active demand for thorn is proof of their in'^reas- 

 ing popularity ; tliat they arc largely characterized 

 by great strength and lino flavour, without tho 

 astringency of most Indian teas ; and can thus 

 not only be used for mixing with other kinds, 

 but can be consumed unmixed. — Indian T'-a Gazette. 



* y/e inserted a full account of the experiment,— 

 Ed. 

 t Surely this ii too sanjfuinn a statement ?— Ed. 



