May I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



765 



^on'ii'.spnndj^ncu. 



To the Edilor of the " Ceylon Observer.'' 



TEA DBIERS. 



15th March 1H86. 



Dear Sir, — I ain glad to sec Mr. Shand coming 

 ont with an efficient yet reasonably priced tea- 

 drier. To push back as long as possible the neces- 

 sity for the purchase of those expensive home- 

 made driers will be a boon to many even if they 

 are not rendered altogether unnecessary. More 

 than a year ago now I built a set of chulas on 

 a plan 'of my own, with the tireplace only for 

 several chulas (as many as you like) and over 

 each of these I am now erecting (enclosed) slides 

 for four trays. A row of two or three of such 

 converted chulas may have a fire at each end — 

 andcr control without disturbing the trays. 



Patentees are fond of calling their inventions 

 aft«r the hot winds of the earth : so I would sug- 

 gest that the common chula be henceforth called 

 the Simoom (as I once saw it blowing at Suez, 

 covering deck and cabins with fine dust). The 

 arrangement above described may be erected for 

 a few rupees, and be called the Monsoon. 



I in;iy take this oppiirtuiiity of adding, that, in order 

 to make the convfrted ehtiliis a success, much attention 

 must be paid to draughia and air-currents — inside and 

 outside of them— which are difficult to control. 



Yours, 

 R. W. J. 



NEW TEA DRIERS. 



Dikoya, 18th March 188G. 

 Dear Sib, — It may interest "11. W. J." your corre- 

 spondent in yesterday's issue, to learn lliat his 

 suggestion of the name " Simoom " fur a lea drier 

 was anticipated several months ago by a building 

 inventor, residing not a thousand miles from Hatton, 

 the offspring of whose creative faculty will, I learu, 

 be shortly jmt before the public, and which 1 am 

 told will, of course, eclipse anything of the kind 

 that has yet been introduced.— Yours truly. 



" THE MORE THE MERRIER." 



TEA ROLLERS. 

 Blackstone, Nawalapitiya, 22nd March 188G. 

 Dkai: Sir,— It will be gratifying to your planting 

 readers to learn from Messrs. Wm. J. & H. Thompson's 

 report just received that they confirm the testimony 

 of experts in Ceylon who have favored the public 

 with their remarks, as to the quality and appear- 

 ance of the tea rolled by the Centrifugal Spheroid 

 Roller. I have seldom rolled a fill for more than 

 12 minutes at an average, and often filled the 

 machine with its maximum capacity of 110 lb. al- 

 though, as a rule, I keep to 100 lb.; most of these 

 rolls were done in presence of visitors, day after 

 day. So that you may now fairly congratulate your 

 readers in having an efficient machine in ail re- 

 spects for their factories. — Yours faithfully, 



JAS. H. BARBER. 



P. .v.— 400 lb. of " wither" per hour at least, 

 equal to 500 green leaf. 



Extract referred to ;— 



" The highest quotation lias been made by Black- 

 stone, for an invoice of much excellence in make of 

 leaf, quality, and strength— but even such teas as 

 these have suffered from the depression already referred 

 to. It may be of interest to state that Mr. Barber's 

 new rolling machinery was used in the manufacture 

 of this parcel."— IVm. J. d- U. Thompson, t'cb. Joth. 



THE PLANTING AND PROSPECTS OF 

 CINCHONA MARKET, 



Dear Sir, — Having had occasion to travel in 

 several districts in search of a snug piece of land 

 for tea and cinchona, I was very much struck while 

 on the beat at the small area in cinchona chiefly 

 in the olden districts — of course, I mean, ooniparod 

 to what it used to be two years ago. Most certain- 

 ly Ceylon is not likely to export the quanttiy of 

 bark that has lately overflowed the market. The 

 unusual quantity was the result of clearing land 

 for tea as well as from the abandoning of coffee 

 estates. The majority of which had fields of 

 cinchona varying from 5 to 50 acres. I noticed 

 that the planting of cinchonas on new land is 

 still going on in middling elevations. The variety 

 chosen is Ledger. In the upper districts officinalis 

 is still the favorite, but no much of it is being 

 planted. The hybrids, ordinary calisayas, &o., 

 seem to bo out of the catalogue. On many estates 

 that were aljandoned the cinchona has been cop- 

 piced with the hope, that, even if the land is not 

 kept clear, in time there will be a forest of cinchona. 

 This is I'cnj unlikelij. On places with coppiced cin- 

 chonas over a year old, the weeds and jungle stuff 

 are obtaining the mastery, and it is pretty clear that 

 the.se lands must be kept clean for at least three years. 

 On some of the estates roots and all have been 

 taken up, but the majority of owners find it too 

 troublesome and expensive to collect the root bark 

 and sell the stumps to tambiesat some low figure ; for, 

 besides the fact that the cinchonas coppiced do 

 not come on unless attended to, the villagers 

 quietly dig and remove them from time to time, 

 the high weeds and jungle screening them from 

 detection. I am pretty certain that proprietors of 

 cinchona estates, planted of course with only Ledgers 

 or officinalis, will in a couple of years reap a good 

 harvest, for the price is bound to treble so long as 

 the American supplies do not show an improve- 

 ment in quantity.* There is one thing drawing 

 the attention of growers, viz., the advisability of 

 not cutting a single branch or twig at any time or 

 age. The practice of doing so does not improve 

 the thickness of the truuk.s ; rather the contrary 

 elTect is produced. As for the facility of shaving 

 such trees the advantage is not nnich, — pecuniarily 

 hardly appreciable. A small percentage of twig 

 might be annually removed if the price for such 

 bark exceeds 12 cents a lb. As for branch bark, its 

 collection without cutting branches is not so ex- 

 pensive or tedious as people would fancy. Only 

 TRY. 



PREPiUJATION OF COCOA (FROM THE CACAO- 



PLANT) IN CEYLON. 



Watterantsnne No. 2, Kandy, 2!)th March 1886. 



Dear Sir,— I beg to annex a letter for publication 

 which I received from Messrs. Volkart Brothers. The 

 subject is of value to the planting and commercial 

 community, I need not enter into detail, explan- 

 atory of the method in which cocoa produced by 

 me is prepared nor flatter myself that the method 

 of my preparation is far superior to that of otluTS. 



I find an article published in the Planters', " Vadn 

 Mecum " speaking very highly of Mr. Jeffries' cocoa. 

 True the external appearance is fascinating but 

 the fermentation is defective. All that the manu- 

 facturing bodies require from the planting com- 

 nmnily is goodly fermented cocoa and not the 

 briijht (ippcarance of tlie shin (or outer covering 

 of the bean). I am only sorry that mine is of 

 a different variety, or I should use all my effort 



•Our corrcBpoiideiit forgetn the .Tav.T and Indian 

 eupplieb which ate expected to increaw.— Ec. 



