Edible Products. 



296 



Commenting on this letter the Ceylon Observer says :-- 



Mr. John Hughes, the well-known analytical chemist of Mark Lane, who 

 in December, 1903, questioned the utility of burying tea primings in trenches 

 in all conditions of soil and weather, returns to the subject in our correspon- 

 dence columns to-day. Mr. Hughes' letter is induced by a remark made by 

 Mr. Joseph Fraser at the annual meeting of the Pitakanda Tea Company to 

 the effect that the full manuring programme and all the primings had been 

 burned at a cost of 5 "58 cents per lb. We find on reference to Mr. Fraser's 

 speech that, while he is reported to have used the word " burned " the printed 

 report of the Company indicates the primings were buried. The objective of 

 Mr. Hughes' letter, however, is to induce if possible an exchange of opinions 

 that may assist a definite conclusion being arrived at as to what is the most 

 practical and profitable treatment of tea primings. Mr. Hughes' own suggestion 

 is an elaborate one and was, we recall, at the time it was first put forward 

 considered by several leading planters as prohibitive on account of the cost. 



Mr. Hughes admits the correctness of the theory of supplying humus 

 to the soil by burying prunings with certain reservations. His idea is that the 

 primings should be removed to a central spot, the leaves stripped off and placed 

 in a heap and allowed to decay, subsequently to be returned to the soil, while 

 the twigs are utilised as fuel. This is a scheme which obviously entails a vast 

 amount of labour and we are not aware that it has been adopted to any great 

 extent in Ceylon. Mr. Kelway Bamber in the course of his admirable address 

 to the Dimbula Planters' Association in November 1903, recommended the burial 

 of prunings, not as an effective manuring but as a basis of manuring. He 

 disapproved of the burning of prunings on the ground of the very large loss 

 of nitrogen — one of the most expensive constituents to replace— which it entailed. 



We think that burying prunings on the lines then laid down by Mr 

 Bamber is probably the most generally resorted to method in Ceylon at the present 

 time. One system we have seen in practice on a crack Dimbula property, and 

 which is found very effective is as follows. Before pruning, holes are dug. 

 After the prunings have lain for a few days it will be found that most of 

 the jj leaves become detached from the twigs or branches. The wood is then 

 gathered to one side and the leaves swept into the holes and covered up. The 

 branches might be left to rot or gathered up, but the coolies, we imagine, take 

 good care they are not left to be too long on the field !. The question is an 

 interesting and important one to tea growers and we shall welcome an expres- 

 sion of opinion from any of our planting readers on the subject. 



CHANGES TAKING PLACE DURING THE RIPENING OF A COCONUT. 



The following are probably the changes which a young coconut undergoes 

 before it reaches maturity :— 



When the young fruit first appears it consists of a white, astringent tasting, 

 semifibrous mass, which afterwards is destined to form the husk ; and of a thin, 

 green outer skin. The nut gradually increases in size, with very little change in 

 composition, until it has grown to be about 3 inches in diameter. It then has a 

 comparatively small, hollow space in the centre which is completely filled with 

 a watery fluid of an astringent, slightly acid taste, and which is much like the 

 juice from a green husk. As this period begins, a rudimentary shell is formed 

 around the inner surface of the nut ; at first this is very thin and soft, but slowly 

 it becomes thicker and harder. 



