§42 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1886. 



of tlie European tea planters. For there can be 

 no iloubt tbat there will be room and to spare, for 

 ill the Sinhalese and Tamils who can be induced 

 Lo work, when our exports rise as they are bound 

 to do to HO, 40 aye 58 millions of lb. of tea per 

 annniii. As regards our Indian rivals, as a Calcutta 

 authority said not long ago : a fall to lOd or lid 

 per lb. in the London market would mean a practi- 

 cal embargo on the export of half the Indian crops 

 oV say ;iO millions lb. of tea per annnm. But the 

 vast mjority of Ceylon plantations, if labour fail 

 not, ought even at lOd to lid per lb. average in 

 London, (o go on and prosper until even the 00 

 millions lb. of tea now sTiipped from India is 

 exceeded I 



liEEKEEPINO AND ENGLISH SCHOOLS: 



A HINT FOR SUB-TROnCAL EDUCATION 



DEPARTMENTS. 



Sitting in tlie greenhouse of Acton Vicarage, 

 Suffolk, where the late Bishop of Ripon and the 

 present Dean of Lichfield were born, and where 

 the Bishop of Norwich, Earl Grey, and his two 

 brothers, and many men of light and leading were 

 |)upils, one of our representatives had a long 

 conversation with the Rev. Arundell Leaky on the 

 ([uestion which he has made his own — namely, 

 Ihe adoption of beekeeping as a subject under the 

 new code. He said that he had the ajiprobation 

 of Mr. Mundella and the sympathy of Mr. Claughton. 

 Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, but com- 

 plained that what the Government gave with one 

 hand it withdrew with another, for it allowed no 

 child to take the subject up as a specific one nn- 

 i\e.v the Fiftli Standard. All that was now needed, 

 Mr. Leakey said with enthusiasm, was the removal 

 of a very small stone, the making it necessarily 

 u specific subject and allowing it to be treated 

 as an oi'dinary one. " But surely you would not 

 put it in competition with the three R's ? " ' 'No, 

 noi with needlework, but I would with geography, 

 for surely it would be better for a child to know 

 how by keeping bees a whole year's rent might 

 be obtained than the position of the Andes." He 

 dilated on the value to the agricultural labourer 

 of this additional means of income, saying that 

 it required no capital, no premises, and liardly any 

 time. Another peculiarity he dwelt on was that 

 bees tresjiass on other people's property with tlie 

 uuiiiue result of improving it. Mr. Leakey further 

 said tliat schoolmasters, from iheir permanent re- 

 sidence in a place and having time on their hands 

 alter school hours, were ijeculiarly adapted for 

 beekeeping. The master in Acton village, for ex- 

 ample, had no less than eight hives, some of 

 which he had patented. Further asked if he knew 

 of any schools which would take the subject up 

 if able to do so, he replied that • he knew of 

 several, and he added that, where two hives would 

 pay an average labourer's rent, he thought if 

 these days, when every one was anxious to im- 

 prove the labourer's condition, his plan was wortli 

 consideration. In reply to questions from our re- 

 presentative as to wax imported from abroad, Mr. 

 Leakey gave the following startling figures : — From 

 the West Indies. 1,1HH cwt.; from France; 1,!)0') ; 

 from Gei'many, '2,2S9 ; from China, 2,114 ; from 

 Japan, 1,401 ; from Portugal, 0,'.(48 ; and from 

 America, H,l(i3— a total of 32,01)9 cwt. This, he 

 pointed out, was independent of the best and most 

 remunerative point, the honey, of which from 

 America only the iiurchascs amounted a))proxi- 

 matcly to 1,50,000. Abseuce of bees was, Mr. 

 Leakey insisted, detrimental to fruit, and their 

 absence was supplied by wild ones. Bees, he said, 

 liud pasture, not only on clover, but on all the 



innumerable garden and field flowers, from the 

 early snowdrop and primrose to the late violet, 

 while the lovely fruit-tree blossoms which deck the 

 spring with exciuisitc white and crimson wreaths 

 at the same time hold out to the bees petals on 

 which they may rest as thsy drink deeply the 

 nectar of a thousand chahces. Space prevents our 

 going more into the practical details of the matter, 

 which showed that the enthusiasm of Mr. Leakey, 

 for which he has been thanked by the Beekeepers' 

 Association, rests on a substantial basis, and 

 the subject at least is worthy of consideration, 

 and many will share Mr. Leakey's hope that the 

 Education Department will facihtate the carrying out 

 of their own concession. — Fall Mall Budget. 



[Query, if the " wax " from China and Japan 

 was all the product of bees. There is wax produced 

 on trees by quite another insect. — Ed.^ 



CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT: 



DIVEESITY OF OPINION EESPKCTING TEA JIACHINERY — 

 W.ANTEr> A " PLANTINO MOLESWORTH " — ALSO A TEA-SEED 

 PBICE CURKENT. 



10th May 1886. 

 In regard to the question of what is the best 

 kind of machinery for tea manufacture, there are 

 as many opinions current in the planting distriet.i 

 as there are districts in Ceylon. Men have their 

 favourite Roller, their pet Drier, besides having a 

 leaning toward^ some particular kind of Sifter, 

 Cutter and even Packer. This diversity of opinion 

 is only another evidence of the marked in- 

 dividuality which so strongly obtains among the 

 Ceylon planters, and which when crystalized into 

 nervous language takes the form of " allow me to 

 know best." There are some men, however, who 

 have not had the needful opportunities of seeing 

 or testing the capabilities of the various com- 

 peting tea machines, and who have not yet made 

 up their minds regarding the relative merits 

 of the diiferent claimants for public support. 

 Many of these men are in the market from 

 time to time as buyers, and it is a very marked 

 want which ought to be remedied, that, as far as 

 I know, there is no lirm in the island to which 

 you can go, and see for yourself on its premises 

 all the different machines from which a man 

 might choose. 



Of those who sell not one seems to be 

 free : all appear to be bound down to sell or 

 expose for sale one particular make, or tlie machines 

 of one particular maker, and the trouble in con- 

 sequence to the public who would like to have a 

 choice before investing is indeed very great. 

 What is wanted is a show-room where one might 

 go and see samples from every workshop and 

 where your order would be taken when you had 

 satisfied yourself what kind of thing was going to 

 suit you. I suppose to be a sole agent for a 

 popular maker is a profitable position to get into; 

 but I should say that it does not show much 

 knowledge of the future, when by so doing you shut 

 yourselves out from partaking of the fruits of 

 other inventions. It seems too absurd when you go 

 into such a firm as Messrs. Walker tt Co. and ask to 

 have a look at say ICerr's new Holler or any other for 

 that matter save Jackson's, to be told that they 

 only sell the latter. Why should ono have to 

 wander here and there to enable one to have a 

 sight of all that is offering? It may be that every 

 individual luaker sees in lih particular jiroduct 

 potentialities embracing and capable of meeting the 

 wants of every tea garden now existing or yet to 

 exist iu Ceylon, and that the sole agent dreams 

 the same fond dream. liut therein they stand 

 alone, and a)e subject at any day to a rude awakening. 



