THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September 2, 1889. 
were brought from the different gardens in carts 
mixed all together, good and medium alike, and pelted 
in chests and sent off to London. Now thev were 
decentralising" and splitting up the estates into divisions 
of about 1,000 acres, with a manager to each, and 
these were all grouped under the management of a 
Calcutta firm— Messrs. Kilburn & Oo., who periodically 
sent practical men for the purpose of m«intaning an 
efficient inspection of all the gardens. The packing 
of the tea of each garden was now done on the 
spot at the different stations where the tea was 
manufactured, and so they would be able to tell 
which were the most successful, both in cultivation 
and manufacture, and would be able to test the ability 
and success or otherwise of each of their managers. 
Mr. McSwenet urged that, whilst their tea cost 
them nearly 10£d. per lb . other companies were 
able to do it much cheapof. Besides which, com- 
panies he could mention produced from 50 to 100 
per cen f more tea per acre than the Assam Com- 
pany. He had found from reports that some com- 
panies were getting 5601b. of tea per acre, against 
their 304 lb. 
Mr. Bullock Explains.— Mr. Bullock, in the course 
of a lengthy and detailed speech, pointed out to the 
previous speaker that, whilst the price of the teas of 
the Assam Company had only fallen ljd per lb. other 
companies' prodnce had fallen 2}d and 2 3-163, so 
that, as compared with such, their company stood in 
a very favourable position. The fact was the unpre- 
cedently low price of tea was the cause of nil their 
troubles at present. The improvements which had 
been made in the quality of their tea, if judged bv 
the nrices obtained in previous years, was about 2d 
per lb, which ot their outturn would renresenf, £14,000 ; 
then the directors had had to pay £2,000 more for 
freight, which could not he helper!, whilst they had 
spent £5,000 on extensions. Therefore, he thought, 
looking at these facts, they would see that had thev 
been in the same position as last year in these matters 
they wonld have pa,i 1 a dividend of 22J per cent. — 
Home and Colonial Mail, July 5th. 
FIG CULTURE IN CEYLON. 
The following interesting information from the 
Treasury of Botany is worth reprinting at this time 
when attention has been directed to fig culture in 
Ceylon : — 
The Fig of our gardens is the F. Carica of botanists. 
The name Ficus, applied to this very anciently known 
fruit, is most probably derived from Peg, its Hebrew 
name; that of Oarica is from Caria in Asia Minor, 
where fine varieties of it have long existed. According 
to various authors, it is a native of Western Asia, 
Northern Africa, and the south of Europe, including 
G-reece and Italy. It is certainly indigenous to Asia 
Minor; but it may have been thence introduced and 
naturalised in the islands of the Mediterranean, and 
the countries near its shores, both in Europe and 
Africa. 
The Fig is a deciduous tree, fifteen to twenty or 
even thirty feet high in favourable climates. The al- 
ternate leaves are cordate, more or less deeply three 
to five lobed, and rough. The fruit is generally shortly 
turbinate, but some varieties are of an elongated pyri- 
form shape ; the skin soft, with shallow longitudinal 
furrows; the colour yellowish-white, greenish-brown, 
purplish-brown, violet, or dark purple. It consists of 
a hollow fleshy receptacle with an orifice in the top, 
which is surrounded and nearly closed by a number of 
imbricated scales— as many as 200, according to Du- 
hamel. The flowers, unlike those of most fruit-trees, 
make no outward appearance, but are concealed within 
the fig on it^ internal surface; they are male and female, 
be former situated near the orifice, the latter in that 
part of the concavity next the stalk. On cutting open 
a, fig, when it has attained little more than one-third 
its size, the (lowers will bo seen in full development, 
and, provided the stamens are perfect, fertilisation 
takes place at that stag 3 of growth. Hat it often 
happens that the etamons are imperfect, and no seeds 
are formed ; neverthless the fruit swells and ripens. 
Under favourable circumstances, a fruit or two is 
formed along the shoots at the base of almost eeery 
leaf. Of these the quantity that sometimes attains 
maturity is enormous ; but frequently, from vicissitudes 
of cold in some climates and heat in others, much of 
the fruit drops prematurely. It may not do so at the 
time when drvness prevails, but at some future psriod 
when moisture is sufficiently abundant: in fact, the 
ini'ury caused by drought to this fruit becomes most 
apparent after moisture has started the tree into 
vigorous growth, and hence the true but remote cause 
of failure in the crop is apt to be overlooked. And if 
this be sometimes the case now, it was much more 
likely to be generally so in former times, when there 
was among cultivators but little intelligence as regards 
tracing effects to their causes. Accordingly, to prevent 
the fruit of the Fig tree from dropping prematurely, 
and to hasten its ripening, the process of caprifica- 
fion was resorted to. This consisted in p'acing the 
fruit of a wild sort, called the Caprifig, among the 
cultivated ones. An insect of the gnat family infests 
the former, which it leaves to attack the latter, en- 
tering to the interior of the fruit by the orifice. It 
is a very ancient practice for it is mentioned by the 
earliest Greek writers of natural history, and is even 
minutely described by Theophrastus. It appears to 
have originated in Greece. Pliny remarks that it was 
only used m the island of the Archipelago; that in 
his time, it was entirely unknown to the Italians; 
and that there was no tradition of its ever having 
been iatroduced to Syria or Palestine. I's utility was 
doubted by some authors, and among others by the 
celebrated Duhamel. He thought it questionable 
whether by caprification the maturity of the fruit 
was hastened, except in the same way as apples and 
and pears are when attacked by the grub. Professor 
Gasparrini, in an essay written for the Royal Aca- 
demy of Sciences of Naples details a number of 
experiments which he had made, and repeated in 
different years. Their results led to the conclusion 
that caprifioation is useless for the setting and ripen- 
ing of the fruit, and instead of making the figs re- 
main on the tree, it either causes or facilitates their 
fall, especially when the insect lias penetratad iuto 
the inside, and produced decay by its own death. 
According to Gasparrini, the practice of caprification 
ought to he abolished, as it entails exnen-e, and de- 
teriorates the flavour of the figs. The French natura- 
list, Oliver, says it is being abandoue I in some islands 
of the Archipelago wh> re it was formerly practised, 
but in which excellent figs are still produced. We 
have thought it necessary to briefly notice the opera- 
tion, as so much has been written with regard to its 
presumed advantageous effects ; but from what has 
been stated, it will be seen that, according to the 
investigations of modern science, it is proved to be 
not only unnecessary, but positively injurious. 
Figs have been used in the east as an aiticle of 
food from time immemorial. They were amongst 
the fruits brought back frnm Canaan by the Israelites 
sent bv Moses to report on the productions of that 
land. We read of a present having been made to 
David of 200 cakes of figs. They were prolmbly nsed 
chiefly in the dried state. The drying is easily 
effected in a warm climate by exposure to the sun's 
ravs, in the same way as those grapes are dried, 
which are called from that ciroumstance raisins of 
the sun. Like the grape, the substance of the fig 
abounds in what is termed grape sugar. In drying, 
some of this exudes and form that soft white pow- 
der which wn see on the imported dried figs. They 
are thus preserved in their own sugar, and rendered 
fit for storing up as an article of food 
Figs were considered of such necessity by the 
Athenians that their exportation from Africa was 
prohibited Those who informed against persons vio- 
lating this law were called ' Sycophautai,' from two 
Greek words signifying the discoverers of figs. These 
informers appear to have been especially disliked, 
for their name gave rise to the term sycophant, used 
for designing liars and impostors generally, as well 
as flatterers. 
