and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



99 



Watt in his Dictionary makes no mention of the 

 fruit of •' P. Saman," but of another species " P. 

 bigeminum " (Calateya in Sinhalese) he says :— 



" Food. — Mason states that, though the seeds 

 are poisonous and sometimes produce disastrous 

 consequences, the Burmese and Karens are 

 extravagantly fond of them as a condimelit with 

 preserved fish. They are said to fetch a high 

 price in the bazars of Burma." 



And of " P. dulce " (Karkapulli cr Keruka- 

 pelte of Tamils) : — 



"Food — The Fruit, which ripens from April to 

 June, consists of a number of large seeds, each 

 of which is enveloped in a sweet, wholesome, 

 whitish pulp. These are contained in a cylin- 

 drical, irregularly swollen pod curled at the 

 end. The pulpy aril is eaten by the poorer 

 classes, Church states that 100 parts of tte 

 bean contain : — Water, 13-5 parts ; albumenoids, 

 ]7'6; starch, 41*4; fat, 17*1 : fibre, 7 - 8, and 

 ash, 2-6. ' 



Trimen's reference is as follows : — 



P. Saman, Benth. (Inga Saman, Willd.), a 

 native of Central and Tropical S. America, 

 whence it was introduced into Jamaica, where 

 it is called ' Guango,' has been very much 

 planted as a shade-tree by roads and in public 

 places. It was introduced to Ceylon about 

 1851, and there are very large trees in Pera- 

 deniya planted in that year. The pod is 

 straight and indehiscent, with a sweet pulp 

 round the seeds, and it scarcely fits well in 

 the genus Pithecolobium. It is often called 

 the ' Rain-tree,' and grows with great rapidity 

 to its full size. 



Who has tried ' Pithaya cactus ' of Mexico ?— 

 fruit 'sweet, soft, nourishing'; or ' monstera 

 deliciosa,' fruit 12 to 14 inches long, succulent 

 'with a luscious pineapple flavour.' Then there 

 is ' Ponteria suavis ' from Uruguay, extremely 

 agreeable with remarkable digestive properties. 

 There is next the stoneless plum of Japan ; the 

 Cornell plum in United States and the 'grape 

 fruit ' originally from China as also the persim- 

 mom. Then there is the Navel or Washington 

 orange, now causing such a stir that it is super- 

 seding all others in America. Dr. HeDry, a 

 high authority, "found even the pomegranate 

 delicious in some districts of China. " The 

 ' Marule ' of South Africa resembles a green, 

 gage with a large stone and scarcely any pulp 

 the place of which is filled with a sweet liquid, 

 'simply delicious.' East Africa has a kind of 

 wild raspberry about 1 inch long, deep yellow, 

 tasting more like a mulberry than a raspberry. 

 In South Africa there is the 'bododo,' 'the most 

 luscious fruit I ever tasted ' says Chapman. 

 Why should not Ceylon do its share in 

 procuring, and growing some if not all of these 

 new fruits : possibly some in the list may be 

 already on trial at Peradeniya or Hakgalla ? 



RICE CULTIVATION BY MACHINERY. 



One of the long felt needs in agriculture in 

 Siam, especially in rice-planting, has advanced 

 a step nearer solution with the adoption of a 

 light engine for ploughing purposes. Ploughing 

 by steam traction engine as carried on in Eng- 

 land and America could have been attempted 

 here years ago, if it had been feasible, but 



owing to the difficulty of overcoming the soft- 

 ness of the ground when wet with the rains 

 it has not been tried, as it was practically 

 foredoomed to failure. Experiments have 

 recently been made with steam engines but 

 have proved disastrous as when the rains came 

 on freely the engines sunk into the ground, 

 and could no longer be used. 



The ideal machine is one which, while light, 

 at the same time furnishes considerable power. 

 Such a machine Dr. Adamsen has had working 

 on his farm in the Klong Rangsit district for 

 some time. It consists of a 4 h. p. oil engine, 

 placed on a truck with wheels, and geared down 

 to the requisite power and speed. The weight 

 of the engine and truck is only two-and-a-half 

 tons, and is easily managed by one man. It 

 drags two disc ploughs, makes a two foot fur- 

 row and can plough two-and-a-half acres a 

 day. Under the old arrangement such an 

 acreage would take eight men and sixteen 

 buffaloes to accomplish. The wet ground will 

 bear a little more than the engines at present in 

 use, say three-and-a-half tons. This will allow 

 additions being made to the number of ploughs 

 employed, and it will be possible to provide 

 power sufficient to draw five or six disc 

 ploughs at once, at a speed of about two miles 

 an hour, ploughing eight or ten acres a day, 

 while still requiring the services of only one 

 man. Machine ploughing is possible when the 

 ground is still hard as well as when the ground 

 is wet with the rains. Again after ploughing is 

 finished the engine can by used for pumping and 

 irrigating purposes, and when the time of har- 

 vest arrives can drive a threshing machine. 

 With this style of engine the difficulty of sup- 

 plying fuel and water as in the case of a steam 

 engine is eliminated. The engine at present in 

 use requires only one gallon of kerosine per 

 horse power and fifty gallons of water per day. 



Dr. Adamsen invites all interested in the 

 question of applying machinery to rice cultiva- 

 tion to visit his farm. He has already received 

 a lot of visitors. — Bangkok Times, June 17- 



ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE TEA TRADE. 



(By Messrs. Wm, Jas. and Hy. Thompson.) 



38, Mincing Lane, June, 1908. 



In reviewing the history of the past year, we 

 feel that the steady maintenance of the trade's 

 general stability and soundness is a most en- 

 couraging feature, and we record with particular 

 satisfaction that the aggregate profit which the 

 industry has given to growers has fully equalled 

 that made last season, though it has not been 

 evenly distributed but partly diverted into 

 different hands. 



With a smaller export from India to the 

 United Kingdom, the inexorable law of supply 

 and demand has made its mark, and Buyers 

 instead of feeling that at any time a superabun- 

 dance of stock could be forced upon them, have 

 realised that the monthly offerings would about 

 supply their current requirements, but not more 

 —the result being that prices for common leaf 

 grades have maintained a minimum value of 

 about 6fd per lb. The total 



