si 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [July i, 1889. 
Cinchona. — Our cinchona bark exports for the sea- 
son at length shows a comparative decrease on that 
of last year, and very little is now arriving in Colombo 
from upcountry. There is some reason to hope there- 
fore for a turn in the home market, but so far 
on sign has appeared of an advance in price. 
Java Soils. — Mr. J. H. Morrees, of Apeldoorn, 
has issued a prospeotus proposing the establishment 
of an experimental station, for the purpose of 
examining the earth for Deli, Siak, and other places 
on the east coast of Sumatra. His object is to 
find out whether the physical and chemical condi- 
tion of the soil is suitable for the cultivation of 
certain produce. — London d) China Express. 
The Deli and Langkat Tobacco Company, to 
which we referred last week, was registered by 
Messrs. Slaughter and May. The first subscribers 
were : — J. Pearson, 3, Oakleigh-road, New South- 
gate ; W. Pitman, 7, St. Helen's gardens, S. W. 
C. Forde, 252, Cornwall-road; H. Warner, Beech- 
croft, Wimbledon ; T. Spregg, 20, Spring Vale 
terraoe, W. ; W. May, 18, Austin Friars ; and W. 
C. Slaughter, 18, Austin, Friars. Each of these 
takes one share.— London <£ China Express, May 17th. 
Garnets from Mysore. — Garnets have gone up 
so much in the market lately, owing to the failure 
or exhaustion of the mines hitherto yielding this 
gem, that experts are being sent to report on all 
localities which are said to be garnetiferous. 
Mysore is known to produce garnets in abundance, 
but whether the gems are of any worth has not 
been ascertained. Mr. A. Streeter visits Suoklaspur, 
in the Hassan district shortly to report on the 
garnets of that locality. — M. Mail. 
Dutch Borneo Progressing. — In the S.-E. portion 
of Borneo, under the Netherlands flag, planting 
enterprise is gaining head. So many estates have 
been opened up there that a considerable demand 
for labour from Java has sprung up. This inflow 
looks strange, considering that from this very portion 
of Borneo a stream of coolie emigrants steadily sets 
in the direction of Deli. Evidently the local native 
labour prefers a foreign field. — Straits Times, 
5th May. 
Gloomy Prospects in Java.— Java planters 
seem to be under a cloud quite as much as their 
brethren in Ceylon :— 
The Batavia Nieuwsblad takes a gloomy view of 
planting prospects in Java at the present moment. 
The burdon of taxation so weighs upon the planters 
that, unless the Government lightens the load, many 
tea growers and cinchona cultivators will come to 
grief. Java tea now fetches such unremunerative 
prices in the London Market that ruin stares planters 
in the faoe should the Government turn a deaf ear to 
them. 
Experimental Ootton Garden. — We hear that Gov- 
ernment intends opening an Experimental Garden for 
the cultivation of Cotton. A trial has already been 
made under official auspices in the neighbourhood of 
Mahara, but it having proved a failure, for what rea- 
sons we do not know, Government is now prospect- 
ing for land either along the Sea-side Line or in a dry 
district within easy distance from the City. There 
is also a rumour that the Alfred Model Farm will be 
planted up with Cotton by the Company already floated, 
but whether the soil there is quite adapted for the 
cultivation we do not know-— Local " Examiner." 
How to Utilize Bunnino Streams, — A new 
method of utilising the power of running streams 
has been devised by M. Tarn, a Bussian engineer. 
His apparatus consists of an endless cable carrying 
a series of canvas cones which open and shut like 
an umbrella. The cable passes over a double drum 
on board of a ponton, and at the other end over 
a pulley suspended from a buoy. On the lower 
part of the rope the cones are opened and forced 
forward by the current of water, thus setting in 
motion a shaft or drum.— Public Opinion. 
Cure for Coffee Leaf Disease. — A Fiji corre- 
spondent writes as follows: — "A German here named 
Chas. Bebman has undertaken to cure coffee leaf 
disease in Ceylon, and has prescribed a remedy for 
it, so he desires me to get the information for him, 
as to what is the amount of award he is entitled to 
in case he succeeds in the cure ; so you will oblige 
me by getting me this information at any time 
convenient to you." [We fear the German is too 
late : there is now no reward available in 
Ceylon for a cure, even if anybody here were in- 
clined to believe in a cure for Hemileia vastatrix, 
which no one is.— Ed.] 
Tobacco and Ceylon Companies. — We find we were 
misinformed about all the pieces of land offered to 
the local Tobacco Company having been condemned 
as unsuitable ; some we learn have been bought and 
will be planted next year. Mr. Vollar too is not open- 
ing and for this Company near Katugastota as a native 
correspondent supposed. The Director of ihe local 
Board are thoroughly practical men and may 
be depended on to do full justice to the interests 
of their pioneer Company, but in view of the 
great competition for " tobacco land," it is obviously 
not to their interest to make known at present 
what land they have bought and where they are 
going to plant. 
A Gem-digging Company for Ceylon con- 
tinues to form the subject of a good deal 
of local writiag, as our pages show, and we certainly 
see no sound reason why English capital should 
be withheld from a proposal so feasible and which 
has so much to commend it. There are local 
Syndicates at work, and no doubt something will 
come of them, but it is surprising in the faoe of 
the many discouragements in Burma, and the 
facilities in Ceylon — celebrated for its gems and 
gempits over a wide extent of oountry — from time 
immemorial, that a Company for the Buby mines 
of the former should be rpgarded so favourably ; 
while the Bubies, Sapphires, Catseyes, Moon- 
stones, &c. &e. of the latter should be compara- 
tively neglected. This ought not to be the ease. 
Lower Udapussellawa, Kith May — The wet season 
has kept leaf disease on coffee rather bad, but has al- 
most done for green bug. It makes one's heart glad to 
watch the helpless half-hearted efforts it is making to 
get abroad. Many trees badly affected last year have 
quite thrown it off and are putting out fresh healthy 
wood. Estimates are likely to be exceeded and 
the warm showers are ripening up crop faster than 
we can gather it. Tea is flushing well, and young 
plants growing satisfactorily. Coffee stealing has 
been going on and with lots of pallam is now on 
the increase. It is hard to catch them and as 
hard to get a conviction, so we must try powder 
and shot on them : nothing acts so well. Labour 
rather short, many coolies having gone to the 
railway, thinking to make better pay. A deal of 
paddy in the villages dying from too much moisture. 
Sugar as an Anti-Incrustator. — Colonel Potto, 
an Italian Engineer, has, it is said, recently made 
some interesting experiments respecting the em- 
ployment of sugar as an agent to prevent the 
incrustation of steam boilers. The experiments 
were made in a boiler of 20 H.-P., and containing 
126 tubes, and the results are stated to have been 
highly satisfactory. Two kilometres of sugar were 
introduced into the boiler every week. Formerly 
the same boiler used to become incrusted in a 
period of about six weeks, but at the end of a 
like period after the sugar had been employed 
it was found to be but slightly coated. After the 
boiler had been working continually for upwards 
of four months with sugar introduced into the 
water, a thin film of incrustation was found to 
be formed ; but this was easily removed by washing. 
—Indian Engineer. 
