Soo THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [Januarv i, 1890. 
To the Editor. 
COFFEE AND TEA PESTS &o.: THE ^BEST 
OF EMULSIONS. 
Queensland, Nov. 12th. 
Dear Mb, Editor, — The following will suit your 
island to perfection. Fill a 5 gallon drum with 
water, adding J bar of out up common soap; dissolve; 
then add 1 full pint each separately tar and grease 
(bullock fat) — a residua settles to the bottom, which 
carefully collected and rubbed between two pieces 
of board in hot water dissolves it ; mix this and 
the first 5 gallons together with hot water sufficient 
to make a total 20 gallons. Your leaf disease and 
insect pests will now have it : — apply as hot as you 
can with syringe or strawsonizer, the finer the spray 
the better. The emulsion looks like dirty water, but it 
is a thorough cure and does not hurt young tender 
leaves, neither will it wash off readily through rains. 
—Ever yours, A WANDERER. 
THE KOLA NUT; GOOD DEMAND ; WHO 
WILL SUPPLY IT ?— LIBERIAN COFFEE. 
London, Nov. 29th. 
Sir, — The present is to inform you that there has 
been a considerable movement in the kola.* The 
consumers in all directions are finding that it is an 
agreeable food and beverage, doctors are also finding 
that it is extremely valuable as a sustaining remedy 
in certain cases wnere they have to give powerful 
medicines, travellers have proved its value when 
exposed on long journeys, and delicate women and 
children find it far more nourishing than cocoa 
(Theobroma cacao); even in the hunting field gentle- 
men take a small piece 1 inch by J inch by J inch 
thick which sustains them for a whole day without 
having recourse to any lunch. 
This is one side of the question, the other is that 
up to the present time the best supplies of kola, 
in fact, the only nuts that could be relied upon to 
come over in good order, have been the We3t Indian. 
But later shipments that have arrived from the 
West Indies have not come in good order, they have 
been shipped before they were properly dried, hence 
when they were cut with a knife in the centre they 
were quite soft, thus causing the nut very soon to go 
mouldy and wormy. 
Immanse quantities come from Africa, but generally 
speaking these are shrivelled up, dried, rotten, 
evidently picked from the ground, and altogether 
anything but an inviting commercial aricle. Again, 
the African nut we observed was of two natures : one, 
whioh divided equally into two sections, broke with 
an astringent flavour, the other had a fracture ex- 
actly like glass, when dry sometimes pink, sometimes 
brown, and with a sweet taste. Lately we have re- 
ceived from the island of St. Thome a shipment 
of sprouted seed which we discovered had 4 and 
5 divisions in place of the ordinary variety that we 
had been accustomed to with two divisions ; they 
further had a thin shell on them, they were similar 
to those breaking bright. The first thing I did was 
to send these off to Prof. Heckel of Marseilles, 
and he advised me not to issue them as they were 
an unknown variety which he thought ought not to 
enter into commerce. We explained to him that 
those nuts produced the dry kolas which broke with 
the bright fracture, and we planted sorao at Syden- 
ham, but it is too soon yet to pass any remarks on 
t ie lolinge. 
Hearing that Prof. Oliver of Kew had writton on the 
StereuUa Acuminata and its varieties we sent him 
* An increased use of Kola nuts, we presume.— Ed. 
specimens in all the different forms together with the 
nuts that divided iato two, but he has been unable 
to throw any light upon thi subject. 
Seeing that so many planters in Ceylon and 
Southern India have determined to go in for planting 
the kolas, I sscured a good supply of the seed of 
the variety breaking with equal divisions, and a 
considerable portion of this has gone forward by the 
steamers lately leaving London. There is no doubt 
that some of the planters will be getting seed sent 
to them, and it is important that these facts should 
be placed clearly on record in your paper, which 
reaches every planter in the island ; and if you will 
let me I should be very glad as soon as we decide 
the qualities of differences of this kola before referred 
to with the 4 and 5 divisions to lay the particulars 
before you. 
One word in conclusion in regard to Liberian 
coffee. You will remark by the papers that this has 
now run up to 100s and is in considerable demand. 
The Dutch have kept to the front, and up to the 
present time have made it a rule throughout the 
Colonies to invariably send home for fresh seed, they 
never plant tho coffee seed from their own tree3 
with the view of establishing plantations. — Yours 
truly, THO. CHRISTY, jt.l.s. 
[We shall be glad to hear further. — Ed. 
CEYLON TOBACCO FOR EGYPT. 
Alexandria, Egypt, Dec. 9th. 
Dear Sie, — I beg to acknowledge the re3eipt of a 
copy of the Ceylon Observer of the 12th ultimo, and 
at the same time tender you my best thanks for 
having kindly given publicity to my letter respect- 
ing tobacco. In addition to the low priced tobacco 
there is also a market here for chewing tobacco 
ranging from 3d to 5d per lb., and I shall be very 
glad to hear from any of your planters on the latter 
article. The native taste in chewing tobacco runs 
into a very strong kind, and the leaves should be 
laid out flit and tied in bundles and be of a dark 
quality. I think a very large business might ulti- 
mately be done between Egypt and Oaylon in the 
tobacco trade, — I remain, dear sir, yours sincerely. 
J. M. ROBERTS. 
PLANTING IN PEERMAAD, TRAVANCORE : — 
A REPLY. 
Penshurst Estate, Peermaad, Travancore, Dec. 11th, 
Dear Sir,— In your November issue of the 
Tropical Agriculturist there is aD extract from 
the Pioneer on the present condition of Peer- 
maad so strangely at variance with facts that 
I trust you will allow me space for a reply. If 
the writer had wished to convey to his readers 
a fair impression of the district, he should have 
visited the whole of it, instead of confining; his 
attention to one small portion where the coffee is 
unfortunately not what it used to be in days of yore. 
I cannot find that he extended his visit beyond a 
few semi-abandoned estates, on which he expatiates 
as though they constituted the whole district. One 
would almost be led to believe, judging from his 
other letters to the Pioneer, that he had some per- 
sonal interest in another district of Travancore, 
which he praises as loudly as he decries this. If 
he had torn himself away from " the valley ex- 
posed to the full fury of the S.-W. Monsoon," 
eastward to the Perriar, southward to Arnakul and 
the Mount, and northward to Perrintorra, he would 
have seen coffee trees loaded with crop in spite of 
leaf disease, tea both in old and new land flushing 
heavily, and cinchona in a thoroughly healthy 
condition. He might then have altered his opinion, 
and thought that Peermaad had a future before it 
and does not complain of its present. 
