Edible Products. 



114 



[February, 1910. 



tably in the secondaries. But that is 

 no reason why the Luskerpore Tea 

 Planters ' Society should be down- 

 hearted. The members can always con- 

 sole themselves with the fact that they 

 are equally as far advanced as their 

 neighbours. 



" Arboriculturist" has said that one of 

 the main objects of the society was to 

 assist the young assistants in learning 

 the outs and ins of things, or something 

 to that effect. The longer paper read 

 by one of the members on " Annual Tea 

 Garden Accounts " will no doubt prove 

 of special interest to them when they 

 get money to speculate in tea garden 

 shares. But we cannot help thinking 

 that an equally lucid paper on the 

 ordinary daily and monthly garden 

 accounts of a tea garden would prove of 

 more interest and immediate use to the 

 assistants. It is notorious that a great 

 many assistants could not tell you how 

 the outturn on the garden on which they 

 are employed compared with the dates 

 of former years. There are assistants 

 who know no more as to the rates or 

 their working of the garden than the 

 cooly who swings tlje kodali. Of course, 

 this is not the case with large firms, but 

 is too often the case in private gardens. 

 It is difficult to see where the manager 

 benefits by keeping his assistants com- 

 pletely in the dark regarding the garden 

 accounts. The European assistant 

 ought to be the manager's understudy 

 in everything in connection with the 

 management of the garden, whether it is 

 in the office or on the telah. The writer 

 has known of an assistant at the end of 

 a three years' agreement who never had 

 as much as seen a gai'den account or 

 pucca cash-book all the time he had been 

 on the garden, and, in fact, knew 

 nothing more than an intelligent sirdar 

 would be expected to know. Of course, 

 there must always be private and con- 

 fidential correspondence between the 

 manager and the agents or proprietors. 

 We do not allude to such, but to the 

 books and accounts relating to garden 

 works and expenditure theieon. As a 

 tea garden pr-oprietor, one would be in- 

 clined to look upon a manager with grave 

 suspicion who kept his European assist- 

 ants completely in the dark when, at the 

 same time, his babus must be thoroughly 

 in his confidence. It is the custom of 

 some companies to insist upon the assist- 

 ants becoming thoroughly acquainted 

 with garden book-keeping immediately 

 they arrive on the garden. Some assis- 

 tants have it as part of their duty to 

 check the accounts, and occasionally, if 

 an assistant is found backward, he is 

 made to copy and recopy them off until 

 he is thoroughly proficient. Again, in 



some instances, the assistant is made 

 equally responsible for their accuracy 

 by his being made to sign them as well 

 as the manager. It stands to reason 

 that the more a man knows regarding 

 his work the more interest hb will take 

 therein. Taking it all round, it is better 

 for the assistant, better for the garden, 

 as it is better for the managers, being in 

 some cases the means of protecting him 

 against himself, and, in a still greater 

 number of cases, protecting him against 

 his babus. There is no intention to 

 belittle the importance of arboriculture 

 in a wider sense than that of the tea 

 garden, But at the risk of again 

 offending, we would advise such study 

 to be strictly ecological. There could be 

 nothing more useful than a thorough 

 knowlege of the differ-ent jats of timber 

 in the neighbourhood of one's garden, 

 and we thiuk most planters are fairly 

 well acquainted with such. As a body, 

 we are very far behind in a scientific 

 knowledge of our natural surroundings, 

 but, when everything is taken into con- 

 sideration, there are a great many 

 excuses for us. It is well known that we 

 have been described as a population of 

 greasy mechanics, wind jammers, P. G.s 

 and Pooh Bahs. A well-known planter 

 has declared that this list might be 

 added to by including Tinkers, Tailors, 

 Bell-hangers and, to his very certain 

 knowledge, there were a great many 

 sioeeps amongst us. The writer confesses 

 to have been puzzled at the term "Pooh 

 Bah." On inquiry , he has been informed 

 that it means a man who has not had 

 brains for anything else, and has been 

 hustled out here to tea to get him out of 

 the way. He, of course, seldom makes 

 much of a tea planter, but he might do 

 fairly well as a volunteer officer. Those 

 who were too stupid even for this might 

 get shoved into one or other of the 

 Legislative Councils where, if they could 

 do no good, they are not allowed to do 

 any harm. They are like little boys, to 

 be seen, not heard. When they are 

 wanted to speak they are told to say, 

 Aye, and upon some occasions they are 

 ordered to say, No. After a few years of 

 this they are figuratively patted on the 

 head by being given a C. I, E. and retire 

 with the firm conviction that they have 

 been absolutely essential in building up 

 the structure of the greatest Empire the 

 world has ever seen. 



ON THE FERMENTATION OF CACAO. 



By Ficken dy. 



(Amtsblatt f. d. SchutzgebeitKamerun 

 Jahrg., 1908, No. 17, Abstract in Central- 

 blatt fur Bakteriologic etc. December, 

 1909. Translated.) 



