Miscellaneous, 



170 



[August, 1908. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



By 0. Drieberg. 



G. D.— The principal local tan-produc- 

 ing trees are Kadol (Rizophora mucron- 

 ata), the common mangrove found at the 

 mouths of rivers, Ranawara (Cassia 

 auriculata) very common in the dry 

 country, and Kahata (Carey a arbor ea) 

 the patana "Oak.'" The Australian 

 wattles, grown upcountry, are the only 

 cultivated tan-producing trees. 



" Niyandb."— Referring to this fibre 

 (Sanseviera zeylanica), a gentleman resid- 

 ing in the Matale District (as he puts it 

 "in the midst of Niyande")does not give 

 a satisfactory report. He has his own 

 machine of simple design for extracting 

 the fibre, but considers it a non-paying 

 product at £36 per ton, it is to be 

 presumed, delivered in England. Every- 

 thing, of course, depends on the cost of 

 extraction, and £36 does not seem a bad 

 price. 



P. C— Why don't you try an artificial 

 mixture for your paddy and tobacco, 

 such as has been found so satisfactory 

 in Bengal ? You will, I fancy, find it 

 cheaper than cattle manure and green 

 manure which you say costs you so much 

 to get on to the land. A good many 

 members of the Society are using arti- 

 ficial mixtures. 



Bee-keeper. — The question of secur- 

 ing comb-foundation for the mee-messa 

 (Apis indica) has been before the Bee- 

 Committee for some time, and just now 

 there appears to be a fair prospect of 

 the matter being brought to a satis- 

 factory issue. 



G. DE S. — The sample is not limestone 

 which can easily be distinguished from 

 quartz by the extreme hardness of the 

 latter (on trying it with a knife) ; besides, 

 limestone will show effervescence with 

 hydrochloric acid. 



Southerner. — A preparation has just 

 been placed on the market by Cooper of 

 sheepdip fame. It is known as the V2 

 solution, and, mixed with a hundred 

 times its volume of water, is an excellent 

 insecticide and preventative of insect 

 attack — specially good for scales. I can 

 send you a sample bottle for trial. 



Citrus.— Here is a good mixture for 

 orange trees:— 2 lbs. groundnut cake, 

 2 lbs. bonemeal, 2 lbs. steamed bones, 



2 lbs. sulphate of potash. Total per 

 tree 8 lbs , which might be applied mixed 

 with cattle manure. 



B. S. — The following will give you the 

 information you want : Healthy pulse of 

 (1) horse is 30 to 40 beats per minute, (2) 

 cow 40 to 50, (3) dog 70 to 80. 



Cotton Grower. — 6 lbs. per acre is 

 the usual estimate for Sea Island. 1 lb. 

 contains about 4,000 seeds. If you get 

 200 lbs. of lint per acre, there would also 

 be about 700 lbs. seed, which, as you 

 will see from the Progress Report (vide 

 page 171) is worth a good deal. 



N. P. — Cerbera odallam is the name of 

 the common fence-plant grown round 

 paddy fields in the Western Province, 

 and known in Sinhalese as gon-kaduru or 

 weta-kaduru. The diference between 

 suriya (Thespesia populnea) and beli- 

 patta (Hibiscus tileaceus) is quite clear. 

 It is the latter that is so commonly used 

 for forming boundary fences. As a 

 shade tree the suriya is going out, 

 though one still sees it in dry districts 

 like Puttalam. 



The Divining Rod.— A local authority 

 qualified to express an opinion writes as 

 follows in reply to my query enquiring 

 whether he does not think we might find 

 the " divining rod "useful in Ceylon: — 

 " I have no practical experience or know- 

 ledge of the "Divining Rod" myself. 

 I have, how T ever, read a good deal 

 about it, and I really think that, so far 

 as at present known, it seems about as 

 difficult to form an opinion on as the 

 question of ghosts or thought-reading. 

 One cannot in reason set down all 

 these people who give apparently very 

 authentic accounts of success as being 

 frauds, wilfully or otherwise ; at the same 

 time I cannot conceive any possible 

 solution— with our present knowledge— 

 of the phenomena, if such really exist. 

 However, no more can you or 1 

 actually give any account of the un- 

 doubted phenomena regarding magne- 

 tism, e.g., the fact that a common bar of 

 iron, without magnetic properties, be- 

 comes a magnet if held in the position 

 which makes it point to the magnetic 

 pole ! There is one point, however, on 

 which I have very decided opinions, and 

 that is, that I believe all these men who 

 use the "divining rod "have a very shrewd 

 appreciation of their surroundings 

 coupled with a knowledge of practical 

 geology, that is to say, they never go to 

 find water in an unlikely place." 



