August i, 1889.] THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
103 
Cutting Down Expenditure in Tea. — We 
learn that orders have been given in a few cases to 
suspend the weeding of certain tea fields. Eegular 
monthly weeding is of course one of the biggest 
items of expenditure as carried out on a Ceylon 
plantation; while in Assam it is only attended to 
periodically, sometimes once or twice a year. There 
is room perhaps for experiments in lowcountry 
fields with good soil ; but past experience is not in 
favour of a suspension of clean weeding, although 
it has been proved that the tea bush can hold its 
own against weeds. 
Cotton-Growing in the Eastern Bintenna 
Districts. — The attention of Sir Arthur Gordon 
and his Government may well be called to the 
letter of Mr. E. Woodhouse in another column. 
If the facts be ad he states and he writes to a 
certain extent from personal knowledge, we feel sure 
that the two Government Agents — Messrs. Elliott 
and Fisher — at present responsible for the Vedda 
districts will be ready to do all in their power 
to carry ouc successfully any orders of Govern- 
ment for the resuscitation of a cottoii-growing in- 
dustry among the people. Free grants of land and 
a free distribution of seed might well be allowed 
under certain guaranteed for the cultivation of 
the same being duly carried out, in order to seoure 
a fair start. 
Cotton-Growing at the Seaside, Panadure. 
— A correspondent writes : — " I send you a sample 
of cotton I found growing on the seaside line near 
Panadure railway station and not a hundred yards 
inland from the seashore. The variety is differ- 
ent from anything I have met upcountry, the 
pods, leaves and seed being smaller and the 
staple of the cotton good and of a silkier texture, 
Kindly let me know if it is a good marketable 
variety. The trees or bushes were about 10 
feet high and several years old. The seeds 
in the pods are enveloped singly in wool and 
not attached to each other in a cluster as in the 
variety we have in Uva. Please let me know 
what variety of cotton this is called." Messrs. 
Darley, Butler & Co. report that the above is the 
poor Tinnevelly cotton, which ought not to be 
enoouraged here in cultivation, there being so many 
better kinds available. For instance, the " rata- 
kapu," which is already so freely spread throughout 
the island, and which our present correspondent 
knows in Uva. This good kind, we learn, has also, 
curiously enough, been found growing almost at 
the door of the new Cotton Mills in Wellewatta. 
Cotton for the Local Mills. — It is certainly 
encouraging to learn from the Secretaries that the 
new Mills will be able to offer up to 40 cents a lb. for 
fine cotton ; a rate which leaves a fair margin even 
for the European planter, if as Mr. Blackett 
reckons he can gather 135 lb. of cotton an acre 
(as an adjunct to other cultivation) at a cost of 
15 cents per lb. Still, 40 cents per lb. is not 
equal to the Is to Is 9d per lb., Mr. Blackett 
spoke of as home valuations. However, on this 
point as well as on what the local Mills can do, 
it is well to give some interesting information 
afforded us in answer to enquiry : 
" We shall probably have to commence with Tinne- 
velly cotton (got from Tuticorin), (1) because we have 
not got cotton enough here yet, (2) because the hands 
must work up gradually to finer counts than can be 
spun from Tiunevelly. It will spin 20s yarn, and a 
little over. We want kidney, New Orleans, and the 
like, to spin up to 10s ; some of this number we shall 
use by itself, and also with lower counts, according to 
the labric. Sea Island we can afford to buy some of and 
m%x. Fine white Sea Island inuy be worth the prices you 
namo, but for a long time, I expect to find much of 
our cotton grown here, stained &c, and Liverpool 
people make heavy deduotious from prioes for that." 
Coffee and Green Bug. — Mr. W. B. Jackson, 
an old experienced planter, noted ^or his steady 
application to duty and moderation of statement, 
affords a very encouraging report in our present 
issue of his fight with " green bug " on a large extent 
of coffee under his care in the Agrapatana division 
of Dimbula. We are hopeful that this will lead 
all other planters with fair coffee in their fields, 
though troubled with bug, to make a good fight 
with this pestiferous enemy and endeavour, if 
possible, to overcome it. The proprietors who have 
crop on their trees are, in view of good prices in 
prospect, certain to do all in their power to secure 
the maturity of their cherries. 
New and Old Products. — Our planting commu- 
nity are eager enough about adding one or more 
products to their tea fields, and it will not be for 
want of variety that they may not make a choice. In 
addition to tobacco and cotton, about which so much 
has been said and numerous experiments with which 
are now in progress, there is a selection of spicetrees, 
nutmegs and cloves especially, besides pepper, ginger 
and vanilla in which a good deal may be done. Our 
new Manual, very nearly finished, on "All About 
Spices," — with well-executed engravings more espe- 
cially to guide in treating the vanilla plant — should 
be a great stand-by to the planter. Those of our 
tea planters who have not rooted out their ooffee 
although stumping the bushes to the ground, are now 
feeginning to encourage the old staple again. "Suckers" 
are to be induced to grow, and inere may be some 
sprinklings of crop gathered in this way, to back 
up tea. Among new products, the latest re- 
commended is the "Fig" for culture, and it is 
likely to be tried over a considerable extent, good 
seed being about to be introduced, while the 
suitableness of the soil and climate of our hill- 
country for the fig has long ago been proved. 
There is no reason why figs (a most wholesome 
fruit) should not add considerably to local food 
supplies, if indeed an export trade is not likely 
to prove profitable. 
Coconuts at Vetangoda. — The topic of most in- 
terest in our little community at the present time is 
the change that will take place on the Naivel Coconut 
Estate shortly. The lease was sold yesterday to one 
Paulis Silva of Mattakkuliya, who is described as a 
wealthy plumbago merchant, for R.5,200 per annum 
for 4 years, and subject to very stringent conditions. 
I wi3h the new lessee joy of his lease, and hope he 
will not forfeit the ample securities he has to de- 
posit. For the last 16 years the lessee has been Mr. 
Edward Poulier, a nephew of the late Mr. Lorenz. 
He was as widely and well-known as a hard-working 
and practical planter as a good sportsman and crack 
shot. Many of the European and Ceylonese gentle- 
men from Colombo who always found a welcome 
under his hospitable roof, and who hunted with his 
fine pack will, I am sure, regret his severance from 
an estate in which he was resident for so long. But 
he is not to leave the district, for apart from his 
proprietary interest in it, Mr. Millen, the object of 
whose visit to the island was so greatly exaggerated, 
has fortunately secured his valuable and efficient ser- 
vices for the mill he is about to start. I congratulate 
Mr. Millen on the happy choice he has made of a 
manager. It would have required a deal of travel- 
ling to find a more practical, hard-working and honest 
man than he has secured, and one who knows the 
place and the people so well. From all I hear Mr. 
Milieu is not going to work oil mills, buy up coconut 
estates or plant them. He is simply going to pre- 
pare coconuts in a form known in confectionary and 
cooking as desiccated coconut I believe. What the 
mills are for is kept a secret. Land for the mills 
has already been secured in the neighbourhood of 
the station, and material for buildings ua3 already 
been brought to the spot. Success to you and your 
undertaking, Mr. Milieu !— Local " Examiner." 
