THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February f, 1890. 
expenditure of a family at home, and the addi- 
tion to thia that is to be faced has caused the 
friend who has on several occasions given us 
the results of his experience as a guide to those 
of our island community who may contemplate 
settling in the old country, to send us remarks 
on this special branch of domestic outlay. What 
the oost of fuel here in Ceylon is, is, of course, 
well-known to every householder, and we need not 
therefore touch at length upon this branch of 
our subject. It is, however, fully realized here 
how greatly the amount of this particular item 
varies in different localities. In some of them it 
is really a very serious item of domestic ex- 
penditure, apart from the large and increasing 
demands of tea and other factories. Some 
thirty yeara ago now, as we are informed, the 
expenditure of the Government Agent at Kandy 
on fuel was but little below — if at all below — the 
ten rupees weekly. It is true that the then 
inoumbent of that office entertained very extensively, 
and all his arrangements for hospitality for the 
numerous guests he received were made on the 
most lavish scale. Still, when it is remembered 
that his salary was at that date but £1,500 
per annum, the fact that one-thirtieth of 
it went for fuel alone is sufficient to prove 
that even here in Ceylon, in certain localities 
within it at least, the item of domestic fuel is no 
light one, for firewood is now far scarcer and dearer 
than it was a generation back. 
But when we turn our attention to the oolder 
climate of England, it will be seen how natural 
it is that the annual domestic coal bill is one 
which necessitates the exercise of a very careful 
economy in the uae of fuel by those whose incomes 
reach but to a moderate standard. The consump- 
tion of an ordinary middle-class family, our friend 
tells us, as the result of his own experience and 
that of inquiry widely made, ranges from an aver- 
age of one ton monthly to five tons monthly. In 
cases when there are very young children, both 
day and night nurseries must be kept at an equable 
temperature ; and in the ease of families where 
this has to be done the suavity or mildness of a 
winter makes a very considerable difference in the 
household expenditure, Perhaps, our friend con- 
siders, it will be well to accept a mean for families 
whose gross expenditure is between £500 and £600 
per annum of 2 tons monthly throughout the year. 
The price of coal at present in London is twenty 
shillings per ton for kitchen coal and twenty-five 
shillings per ton for coal used for other purposes. 
These prices will seem moderate enough when it 
is recollected that a hundred years ago the price 
of coal in London ranged between £2 and £3 
per ton. What the poorer classes must have 
had to suffer in those days, when wages were 
quite 100 per cent below their present standard, 
may well be realized from this fact. The amelio- 
ration of their condition as the result of the 
construction of railways and the employment of 
improved methods of "winning" coal — as it is 
termud — is certainly not among the least of the 
btnehts to the wage-earning classes which the 
passage ol a century has wrought. 
Pursuing the theme of the communication by 
our friuud, it may be set down that the expendi- 
ture of a moderate household in England for 
domestic fuel avtrages about £30 a year. Several 
economies may, however, be practised which tend 
somewhat to lecluco this amount. Many people 
find it inconvenient to store two descriptions of 
coal, and, as a nialt-.r of fact, what is sold as 
kitchen coal is amply gojd enough for all general 
use, though of course the higher descriptions 
givo a brighter fire and burn with loss of 
residuum, and are consequently less provocative 
of dirt, than the commoner kinds. In the mere 
matter of coBt, however, a very considerable 
reduction may be effected in the coal bill by 
foregoing these two advantages. Then, again, in 
many frugal households coke is largely burned in 
combination with coal. This is a very efficient fuel 
for use in the " kitcheners " with which most 
English kitchens are now furnished. Indeed 
the strong draught which is possessed by 
such an apparatus causes coal, when employed by 
itself, to burn away with a rapidity alarming to 
economical housewives. The admixture of it with 
coke in such cases is therefore almost obligatory, 
and this is a material which is so cleanly to 
handle and store that it may be housed in almost 
any available corner or cupboard. Our friend, 
indeed, advises its partial uae even in sitting- 
rooms, though he admits that in many cases of 
delicacy the fumes given out by it unfit it for 
extended employment for such purposes, and he 
counsels that it should never be used in nurseries 
or for the heating of sleeping rooms. Still he 
advises careful use of it by those to whom economy 
i3 necessary, and in the case of his own domestic 
experience he has found that by following out 
the use of kitchen coal for all purposes, and that 
of an admixture of coke, about five fires can be 
kept burning throughout the winter season— and 
the kitchen fire of course all the year round — for 
about £15 par annum. Such an outlay, our corre- 
spondent thinks, may be accepted by those of our 
readers who have in view a residence at home as a 
sufficiency for this branch of their estimated ex- 
penditure. But it is certain that, in view of the 
anticipated rise in miners' wages and other con- 
ditions likely to affect the cost of coal raising, 
this datum may certainly be expected to prove in- 
adequate. It affords, however, a basis on present 
rates quoted, upon which a reliable estimate may 
always be formed. 
* 
AETIFICIAL JEWELLERY. 
The Parisian master is a critic of precious 
stones; he knows how to cut, how to mount, and, 
immediately aiterwards, how to imitate them ; he 
is an artist in enamel, mosaic, and gilding ; he 
can amalgamate gold with silver, producing every 
kind of spiendid illusion. Jewels, true or false, are 
in constant demand, and for the production of the 
latter variety a philosopher's stone of some Bort 
must be found, which shall convert cheap substances 
into glories. The false French diamond, for which 
so enormous a desire has for years been exhibited 
at Paris, was, until lately, the very centre of this 
sparkling commerce. Ic is a bit of colourless paste, 
superimposed upon another, with a darting central 
radiance, both perfectly white, except for the 
prismatic aurora incessantly playing through them. 
The ordinary materials employed in the fabrication 
of false precious stones are of a very commonplace 
character. A Parisian mechanic, engaged upon 
these manipulations, may be required to make a 
false diamond out of white sand ; first, he washes 
it with hydrochloric acid, and then with 
simple water. Minium, calcined soda, borax, and 
oxide of arsenic are subsequently added, and 
a perfectly lucid comb.naiion results ; but 
when the Parisian artisans come to the sapphire 
—the second in their estimation of all precious 
stones — they have to deal with its wonderful and 
varying colours, and the obstacle lie3 in the pro- 
duction of that lovely dark light burning in and 
bursting from its heart, for which the stone is 
famed, in all its hues — white (the rarest), pale 
blue, ruby tinted, vermilion, milk coloured, violet, 
