and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society,— August, 1910. 183 



"EXPERIMENTS ON THE QUALITY 

 OF TEA" 



is the subject of the latest Indian Tea 

 Association pamphlet, to hand, being No. 2 of 

 1910, by G D Hope, B.Sc, Ph.D. Scientific 

 Officer to the I.T.A. An earlier publication of 

 this department discusses " The factors which 

 determine the quality of tea." The present 

 pamphlet deals with the same question, and 

 presents the results of two series of investiga- 

 tions in which various aspects of the subject 

 have been studied in detail. The results of a 

 preliminary enquiry into the influence which 

 external conditions, such as rainfall, temper- 

 ature, manurial treatment, etc., exert on the 

 quality of tea leaf are discussed in Part I. Owing 

 to impracticability of manufacturing separately 

 and under identical conditions the leaf from 

 numerous small plots such as those at Heeleaka, 

 it has been impossible to test the quality of the 

 leaf by examination of the finished teas. It has 

 therefore been necessary to make use of such 

 chemical methods as we have in order to deter- 

 mine approximately the value of the leaf for tea 

 manufacturing purposes. Parb II deals with the 

 subject of manufacture and describes in detail 

 attempts to follow the loss of essential oil, dur- 

 ing the process of firing in order eventually to 

 determine methods by which this loss may be 

 minimised. The chemical work which these 

 investigations entailed has been carried out at 

 Heeleaka during the last season. Mr. B R S 

 Prichard, Manager of the Tyroon Tea Co.'s 

 garden at Bandasulia, some five miles away from 

 Heeleaka, very kindly offered the department the 

 use of his machinery during the season for the 

 purpose of experiments in manufacture. This 

 offer was gladly accepted and the investigations 

 described in Part II was carried out in Banda- 

 sulia Factory. The experiments in manufacture 

 were chiefly conducted by Mr Carpenter, the 

 Assistant Scientific Officer and Mr Hope towards 

 the close of the season. These investigations 

 were both suggested by Dr. Mann, whose advice 

 throughout has been much appereciated. Copies 

 of the pamphlet can be obtained from this 

 office in due course. 



BRAZIL'S EFFORTS TO CULTIVATE 

 RUBBER. 



It is said that Brazil is making energetic en- 

 deavours to promote the cultivation of rubber, 

 and two Bills are now before the Federal Parlia- 

 ment dealing with this branch of industry. The 

 first proposes to regulate the collection of rubber 

 and prevent careless or unpermitted gathering 

 by the introduction of regulations in regard to 

 the frequency of the tapping of trees, etc. By 

 the second Bill it is intended to facilitate culti- 

 vation, inasmuch as the Government will give 

 land free of charge to the person who will under- 

 take to plant a minimum of 1,000,000 trees, and 

 will also grant exemption for a long time from 

 taxes and export duties on rubber. On the other 

 hand, a portion of the net profits is to be paid 

 over to the State.— S. <k C. Mail, July 29. 



STUIYIP ROT IN TEA. 



Referring to my Note, No. 57, on this subject, 

 Mr. Petch, the Government Mycologist, Ceylon, 

 writes : — " Our Tea root diseases, in order of 

 prevalence are caused by, 



Uslulina zonata Deo. 



Hymenochaete noxia, Berk. 



Poria hypolateritia, Berk. 



Botryodiplodia theobromce, Pat. 



Rosellinia bothrina B. &. Br. 

 The first of these begins on dead Grevillea and 

 Albizzia stumps." 



Writing of the rot caused by Symplocos spicata, 

 Mr, Petch says : "It was well known in Ceylon, 

 seven years ago, that bushes died round Sympto- 

 ms stumps, but I have not met with an example 

 during the last five years. Carruthers puts it 

 down to Rosellinia, but we have already split his 

 Rosellinia into five, and I can't find out which 

 of these starts from Symplocos. If you could 

 send me the tap-root of a bush which has died 

 near a Symploeos stump, I should be greatly ob- 

 liged."— RudlophD. Anstead, Planting Expert. 

 — Planters' Chronicle, Aug. 6. 



A NEW SCALE INSECT ON 

 CASTILLOA. 



Specimens of a scale insect found on Erythrina 

 lithosperma, the upper sides of the leaves of Cas- 

 tilloa clistica, and rapidly spreading on Coffee 

 have been received from Kotagiri. These Scales 

 were sent to Mr. E E Green, the Government 

 Entomologist, Ceylon, who has kindly identified 

 them. Mr. Green writes as follows : — " The scale 

 insects prove to he Lecanium olece, Bernard. It 

 is an unusually large form of the insect. The 

 species has not previously been recorded from 

 the Indian continent." This is apparently a new 

 pest. The scale is deep brown to black in colour, 

 and has a rounded outline, is very convex with 

 ridges on the upper surface in the form of the 

 letter H. Shade trees, like Erythrina, badly at- 

 tacked should be cut out and burned. The Cas- 

 tilloa each year sheds its leaves, and these should 

 be gathered up and buried with lime, the land 

 limed and forked, and generally cleaned up. 

 Coffee attacked should be sprayed, and probably 

 the Vermisapon mixture will be found useful for 

 the purpose. — Rddolph D. Anstbad, Planting 

 Expert. — Planters' Chronicle, Aug. 6. 



THE PLANTER'S ASSOCIATION 

 OF PAPUA. 



Shortly to be Formed. 

 The agricultural development of the above 

 Territory has been considerable. Large areas 

 have been taken up and a large amount of 

 capital has been directed to the country. Many 

 plantations, owned by private individuals or com- 

 panies, have already commenced work and others 

 are on the point of doing so. The planting in- 

 dustry may bo said to have now passed the 

 tentative stage and to have secured a firm foot- 

 ing in Papua. Owing to the distances between 

 centres of activity, the difficulties of communi- 

 cation and the absence of any local precedents, 



