192 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Name. lb. Av. 



Indian. 

 Terrace 2781 44 83 



Dunsandle 2095 43 '50 

 Kolani 16585 30 08 



NlLGIRI. 



Halashana 5620 52 03 

 Kentons 2100 28-22 



INDIAN TEAS. 



Name, lb. Av. Name. lb. Av. 



Travancore. Sothuparrai 73194 43'50 



Devicolam 54751 46'57 Thiashola 5444 42 95 



Vagavurrai 38581 45-27 Lockhart 72420 42-61 



Surianalle 84465 45-05 Yellapatty 10130 39-25 



Ohittavurrai 92305 44*313 Isfield 34930 38-62 



Madupatty 44655 44-16 Stagbrook 14711 35-67 



Kannia- Nallathanni 9723 35-47 



mallav 156947 43'61 Munaar 16047 35"10 



Name. lb. Av. 

 Kalaar 11608 35-02 

 Kaduakarnam3780 34-78 

 Lefcchmi 15322 34 55 

 Chakunad 7602 34"36 

 Glen Mary 4795 34-25 

 Sevenmallay 13163 2999 



CARAVONICA COTTON. 



(Continued from page 1 88.) 



five years, He attributed its failure in South 

 Ind i to unseasonable planting or unsuitable 

 rainfall. In Queensland (he went on to say), 

 where they have anything from 138 to 200 inches 

 a year the rainfall occurs during the four months, 

 January to April, and the cropping conditions 

 are excellent. He was only withheld from open- 

 ing out land for his cotton on an enormous scaio 

 by the refusal of the Australian Government to 

 allow the importation of sotUH thousands of In- 

 dian coolies. In Lancashire his cotton is still 

 considered to belong to a faucy kind and too 

 fine for ordinary work. Cn the Continent, how- 

 ever, it has been widely taken up, the silky kind 

 being used for making all the fine classes of cot- 

 ton and the wooly as a substitute for wool. In 

 Berlin are the headquarters of a syudicate, 

 called the International Cotton Company, with 

 the capital of £6 or £7.000,000. This will lend 

 money at 3 per cant and provide seed, and the 

 only restriction is that no seed must be sold or 

 disposed of outside the Company, although the 

 grower can do as he chooses about the sale of his 

 cotton. Dr. Thomatis is advising Director to 

 this Company, and he is now selecting land in 

 German East Africa. He says that, already some 

 750,000 acres are under preparation to grow it in 

 the Soudan. (We know that this statemimtis not 

 accurate.) Sixty or seventy Norwegian families 

 have migrated to Eastern Cuba expressly to 

 grow Caravonica cotton, and they sailed in the 

 '• Fram," Nansen's ship of Arctic fame ! He un- 

 fortunately considers that, perhaps, Ceylon has 

 not a climate quite suitable for Caravonica cot- 

 ton. Caravonica is said to yield one ton (2,240 lb.) 

 to the acre, about 90 per cent pure fibre being 

 obtainable from a properly grown crop, against 

 a minimum of 300 lb. per acre with Egyptian. 



In another issue of the Tropical Agriculturist 

 we learn that a produce broker of Brisbane has 

 evolved a hybrid " Mamara," which promises to 

 be a serious rival to Caravonica. It has yielded 

 at the rate of 300 lb. of lint per acre, and a small 

 crop is secured in six months after planting. 



He who runs may road and form his own con- 

 clusions as to the merits or otherwise of Cara- 

 vonica and other vaunted tree cottons. It is 

 strange that the marvellous results proclaimed 

 on their behalf have never been attained within 

 our experience in India. Even in Australia 

 where we have cast onr mind's eye over bound- 

 less plains whitened with the overflowing har- 

 vest of Caravonica cotton, the bald truth is pub- 



lished that there are several small growers of this 

 cotton in the immediate vicinity of Cairns ! 



To go no further than India itself, we have 

 several instances of men, who, misled by paltry 

 results obtained from carefully nursed plants 

 in their own compounds, have persuaded com- 

 placent friends to waste their substance in at- 

 tempting the hopeless task of tree cotton cultiva- 

 tion on a commercial scale. 



The tree cotton which will succeed as a field 

 crop has still to be discovered, and until it is 

 really found and certified to be a success by re- 

 sponsible and disinterested men, the public in 

 general will be well advised to withhold their 

 financial support from well-meant, perhaps, but 

 visionary schemes of amassing rapid fortunes 

 from tree cotton cultivation. — Agricultural Jour- 

 nal of India for J uly. 



THE HIGH PRICE OF COPRA 



— owing to the increasing demand for coconut 

 oil, should make coconut growing an increa- 

 singly profitable industry. The main uses of the 

 oil are in soap and margarine manufacture. 

 In the manufacture of white soap it gives to 

 the soap cake a satisfactory degree of hardness, 

 and helps to resist the disintegrating influence 

 of water without any lo<s of claansing power. 

 It can therefore be mixed with other oils, the 

 use of which alone would result in a very soft 

 soap. It is, however, in the margarine industry 

 that the present demand for coconut oil is so 

 active, owing to the 



SCARCITY OF ANIMAL FATS. 



In Germany, for instance, the price of vege- 

 table butter for cooking is now more than that 

 for lard, being 8d. per pound, as compared with 

 7d. The principal difficulty in the manufacture 

 of an edible fat from copra has been the eli- 

 mination of the specific sweet odour. One 

 method of accomplishing this is by treating 

 the expressed oil with heated steam and neutra- 

 lising with magnesia. The oil is then washed 

 with warm water and remelted. Another method 

 is by washing with dilute sulphric acid, next 

 adding to the fat a weak solution of carbonate 

 of soda, and finally neutralising with slacked 

 lime. It is in Germany that the u^e of vegetable 

 facts is greatest. There are already about seven 

 German firms now crushing copra ami refining 

 the oil for purposes of food. The copra residue 

 is worked up into food for cattle, which Is 

 especially valuable in a country like Germany, 

 which imports large quantities of stock food.-~ 

 H. <h C. Mail, Aug, 5. 



