Dec. 1606.] 307 Correspondence. 



As long as the present insanitary condition as regards disposal of sewage 

 etc., on estates continues, there is little encouragement for Medical Officers to cope 

 with this disease, because, when cured, patients get re-infected on the estates soon 

 after their discharge from hospital, and the whole business has to be gone through 

 again ad infiutum. 



The above remarks will be met by the statement that the suggestions are 

 totally impracticable of being carried out : the answer to which is that they are not 

 impracticable provided those in charge of estates will spend a little money to improve 

 the condition of their coolies. The return for the expenditure will be a more efficient 

 labour force. 



ALLAN PERRY, 

 Principal Civil Medical Officer and 

 Colombo, September 29, 1906. Inspector-General of Hospitals. 



Correspondence. 



THE NORIA PUMP. 



Sir,— 1 do not think that Mr. Saravanamuttu is correct in stating (" T. A", 

 Vol. XXVII., p. 317) that the" Noria" pump tried last year at Vasavilum was 

 found to lift too great a quantity of water at one time, so as to make it useless to the 

 cultivator, and the well run short of its supply in a short time. Before the pump 

 could be given a fair trial, the euterprising importer became involved in litigation 

 with some of the more conservative shareholders who objected to the innovations, 

 and he retired to Negorabo, after successfully defending the case, and no further 

 experiments have been made. Apparently the fact that he had to pay his own costs 

 combined with the prospect of further opposition disheartened him. 



My recollection is that he informed me that it was necessary after using the 

 pump for some time (I forget how long) to wait for 20 minutes for the well to fill 

 again, but an interval of 20 minutes occasionally in irrigating would not be sufficient 

 to make the use of the pump an impossibility. Further, all wells may not be the 

 same as this well— one at Tirunelveli, a few miles distant, opened by Mr. N. W. Smith 

 in connection with the Jaffna Waterworks scheme, seemed to have an inexhaustible 

 water supply. It cannot be said that this well either was exhausted. 



What is wanted is further tests, systematically conducted, with the results 

 carefully noted. There has been no report of the kind with regard to this experi- 

 ment, and without it, it is premature to condemn it as " useless to the cultivator." 

 Mr. Thomas in his paper on the "Noria" pump in " T.A.", Vol. XXV,, p. 606, does 

 not give the practical results of the experiment, 



J. P. LEWIS. 



Kandy. 12th November, 1906. 



PRUNING HEVEA AND CACAO TREES. 



Dear Sir,— As (I think) the oldest pioneer in Para Indian Rubber cultivation, 

 I should like you to allow me to corroborate Mr. Herbert Wright's views as to 

 advantages arising by obtaining a standard form for the Hevea, i.e., by the budding 

 back of the terminal shoots of the young trees. 



It was the method which I found best adopted to my Cacao, &e., &c, and, find- 

 ing it so much to advantage, I carried it on to the young Rubber under my hand on the 

 Rio Tapajos. At that period, however, one was as one crying in the wilderness : 

 Indian Rubber cultivation was then looked upon as the most visionary of ideas, and 



