and Magazine of the Cei/lon Agricultural Society. 



399 



A GREVILLEA ROBUSTA QUERY, 

 CANKER IN CAMPHOR TREES. 



Pykara Falls estate, Nadewatam, Nilgiris, 

 S. India, March, 23rd. 

 Sik, — Can you please inform me whether the 

 bfrevillea Robusla is a "deep feeding' or superfi- 

 cial feeding tree Y Has it been ascertained defi- 

 nitely what the nutritive value of its litter is ? 

 Have any of your readers noticed the tendency 

 to a kind of canker in the larger branches of 

 the camphor tree Y I have never observed any 

 disease in the main stem of the canker, but only 

 in the branches. Will Mr. Kelway Bamber 

 kindly permit us to benefit by his observation 

 on this subject p Perhaps, it is not true canker, 

 but simply the result of some injury. I have noti- 

 ced the dying of individual branches frequently, 

 but the mischief does not spread to adjoining 

 branches. I have never been able to ascertain 

 the cause. — Yours faithfully, 



TEAMAKER. 



NEW MACHINE FOR TREATMENT 

 OF HEMP. 



A new scutching machine, designed by a Ger- 

 man engineer, is very favourably noticed in a 

 report to Washington by the American Consul 

 at Chemnitz, although apparently he has no 

 information respecting the details of the in- 

 vention. According to the Consul's account the 

 machine can successfully replace the usual 

 manual operations and not only substitute 

 mechanical power for human effort but pre- 

 serve uninjured the finer fibres. The machine 

 has been constructed by a prominent firm at 

 Magdeburg, and recent experiments have been 

 conducted upon Manila hemp grown in Ger- 

 man botanical gardens. The results have been 

 so satisfactory that the constructing engineer 

 ia about to proceed to German East Africa 

 with the machine and test for several months 

 its full adaptability under colonial conditions. 

 The Musa textilis, of the Philippines, has been 

 introduced to German East Africa and flour- 

 ishes there, but botanists have found that the 

 Musa enscte, which yields a fibre fully equal to 

 the famous Manila hemp, is iudigenous to the 

 colony. The only difficulty encountered in this 

 connection with the development of this tropi- 

 cal industry has been the lack of suitable 

 machinery for the scutching or liberation of 

 the fibre from the soft parenchyma which en- 

 closes it and from the tissues of the bark. 

 The operation of scutching as practised in 

 the Philippines is of the most primitive 

 nature. The crude process of rubbing, beating 

 and shaving used in the Islands gives fairly 

 good results, as far as the production of the 

 coarser grades is concerned, but it is destruc- 

 tive of the finer and more delicate fibres, not 

 only of the Manila hemp plant, but also of 

 several other monocotyledons, particularly of 

 tho pineapple, the loaves of which yield a choice 

 grade of fibre. The invention is also said to 

 be adaptable for the sisal hemp of Mexico, 

 the economic importance of which is increasing 

 steadily. — Commercial Intellitjcncc, March 11. 



TEA IN KATHA, 



It may not be generally known that a large 

 number of tea gardens are to be met with scat- 

 tered throughout the Katha district, the more 

 important gardens being in the Western hills of 

 the Pinlebu township and in the south and east 

 of the Banmauk subdivision and as the mode of 

 cultivation is peculiar only to this district inas- 

 much as it differs generally from the usual re- 

 cognised practice noticeable in tea gardens else- 

 where, a brief description of the cultural opera- 

 tions and the method of manufacture may per- 

 haps be of more than passing intorest. It may 

 be stated at tho outset that the tea gardens are 

 individually small in extent, being usually about 

 an acre in area and as a rule the gardens appear 

 to be one large plantation, but each owner knows 

 the number of trees that belong to him. 



In selecting a site for a gard -n, a cool and 

 wooded spot well sheltered from the sun is chosen 

 preforably on the north or east side of the hills 

 bordering on the paddy fields so that the water 

 may drain quickly. Some holes two or three 

 inches deep aud about 9 inches apart are dug in 

 the ground into which seeds, 15 to 20 in number, 

 are dibbled in and they are covered over with a 

 layer of loose earth over which some leaves are 

 sprinkled. There is no recognised time of sowing; 

 the seeds are generally put in just before tho 

 rains set in, but seeds aro also planted in the 

 cold weather in which case the shoots spring up 

 early in the following rains and in either case 

 no care whatever is given to the seedlings. The 

 plants are slow growing reaching only a foot in 

 height at the age of two or three years and the 

 leaves are mature for plucking when tho trees are 

 between 5 and 7 years old. As the plants grow 

 stronger and no longer need fear the sun's rayw, 

 the larger trees among which the seeds were 

 originally planted, are girdled and left to die. 

 Some protection against a strong sun is, how- 

 ever, always required but the trees', surrounding 

 and over-hanging the gardens suffice for the 

 purpose. The tea bushes blossom in August 

 and the fruit ripens in November. The seeds 

 are sometimes eaten but more usually retained 

 for sowing. A peculiar characteristic of these 

 tea gardens is that trees of different ages, some 

 mere seedlings while others fully 70 or 80 

 years of age, are found growiug together. This 

 is accounted for by the fact that these gardens 

 descend from father to son and that planting 

 is carried on eide by side with existing trees 

 by succeeding generations and as new seeds 

 are generally sown to fill up blanks caused by 

 the death of the older trees the ages of the 

 trees in a garden vary considerably. 



The only care bestowed on these gardens i.s 

 the clearing of grass and undergrowth of weeds 

 once a year, principally for fear of jungle fires, 

 and the pruning of the longer branches in 

 order to ensure a thicker and stronger growth. 

 The trees grow to no great height and their 

 girth is always small. They consist, as a rule, 

 of a clump of several stems springing from ftfeo 

 seeds planted in the same hole and the oldest 

 are not more than 18 inches in • girth. The 

 trees aro plucked thrice a year at intervals of 

 a mouth between each plucking, the crop of 

 tender leaves at the end of April when tho 



