THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1890. 
INDIAN PLANTEES ON TEA DBYEBS. 
One of the Black Squad writes us:— Your South 
Sylhet correspondent is trying to do more than he is 
able when he undertakes, as he does m your issue 
of the 28th January, to teach planters what dryers 
they should go in for. Instead of writing to one of 
the Calcutta Agency houses, he should have addressed 
himself to at least a dozen of them, and he would 
then have found how precious little Calcutta housea 
know about drying or any other kind of machines. 
The firm who wrote " There is little to choose between 
the 'Down Draft' and the 'Venetian'", evidently 
knew very little about the matter. The two machines 
are not in the same street. For quality and quantity 
of work cost of erection and repairs, and amount ot 
fuel used, the ' Down Draft ' is far and away the better 
machine If your correspondent wants information 
about drying machinery, he will get more in aweek 
by visiting neighbouring gardens and asking trie 
opinions of his brother-planters than all the Cal- 
cutta firms could give him in ten years. He is 
evidently very badly in need of information from 
somewhere. Fancy his saying that Jackson has 
machines of very muoh the same type or principle, as 
the ' Down Draft' I Fancy too, his saying that an ad- 
vantage claimed for the ' Sirocco ' was that it was 
automatic. Great Scott! When I went to school, we 
were taught that automatic was from the same roots 
as automaton, autos matts, and meant self-acting. 
No sane man ever went into a tea-house and saw 
coolies spreading mat on ' Sirocco ' trays and come 
away with the idea that the machine was a self -act- 
ing', i.e., an automatic one. 
Your South Sylhet friend says: "Every planter 
is only too glad to hear of anything to his advantage,' 
and yet he abuses the " Peripatetic Planter " for point- 
ing out to others the advantages of the " Down Draft 
Sirocco." I have no more interest in the Sirocco 
than our Sylhet Chai has ; but as an Engi- 
neer of many years' experience, 1 may be 
allowed to say, perhaps, that I endorse eveiy 
word that the " Peripatetic Planter" has written in 
praise of the " Down Draft." In the opinion of the 
majority of planters, the old No. 1 " Sirocco" is the 
best dryer that has yet seen the light for quality of 
work ; but in these days of big concerns, and ten thou- 
sand maund factories, we want quantity as well as qual- 
ity • and so far the A " Victoria" seems to be the only 
machine in the market that me?ts present requirements. 
Automatic machines are rapidly supplanting the old 
types, and five years hence manual driers will be things 
of the past. Messrs. Bansomes' new drier will, I fancy, 
beat the " Victoria" and " Venetian Dryers," to say 
nothing of Kinmond's, Gibb's, and Barry's and Sharp's; 
but if Messrs. Davidson & Co. will only take the bull by 
the horns and give us an " Automatic Down Draft Si- 
rocco" in two sizes, turning out, say,one maund and three 
maunds of pucca tea per hour, it will beat all comers. 
—Indian Flanters' Gazette. 
♦ ■ 
PERAK TEA. 
The appearance on the London market of an invoice 
of Perak Tea may well mark another stage in the chang- 
ing conditions of this important trade. The quantity 
is small, indeed— only 78 half-chests; but how is it since 
the first sample from Ceylon excited the same interest 
and curiosity that Perak is exciting at the present 
moment 1 Yet Ceylon is now in a fair way of rivalling 
Onina as a contributor to the English market ; while 
the import from India, which has oommeuced within the 
present generation, already far exceeds the quantity 
China is called on to supply. And, great as have been 
the resultant ohanges in the conditions of the trade, 
we are clearly not yet at the end of the list. Experi- 
ments are beiDg made with the tea plant in Fiji and 
the West Indies. The attempt to cultivate it in the 
Caucasus seems likely to achieve success. The produc- 
tion is extending in Java, in spite of fiscal difficulties. 
A nd now the appearance of this new competitor opeus 
up, as we have suggested, indefinite possibilities of 
further change. For the only question here was of 
quality. If palatable tea could be produced at all, on 
the slopes of the range which runs down through the 
Malay Peninsula, the possibilities of quantity would 
seem practically illimitable. And on this crucial ques- 
tion or quality the verdict of experts seems unhesita- 
tingly favourable. The samples offered were readily 
bought at a price ranging from Is Ofd. for broken 
pekoe down to 6|d for dust, so that tbe new industry 
may be considered fairly launched. — L, and C. Express, 
♦ 
Coffee on the Nilgiei Hills. — These Hilla 
present various and different aspects to the coffee 
planter at this time of the year. While in one part 
the season is very backward and the spike is almost 
invisible, in another part it is most forward. At 
Kotagherry, for instance, one blossom is out and 
the spike is advanced. Bain just now in that 
neighbourhood is needed and will do much good. 
In other places, it will do a deal of harm, unless 
followed up by heavy and frequent showers.— South 
of India Observer. 
Gigantic Champao Trees. — The latest edition of 
the Boorkee Civil Engineering papers, hap it, that 
" in Mysore the champao trees obtain a girth of fifty 
feet; in Northern India it never exceeds sixteen feet." 
In which part of the Mysore Province these gi^antio 
trees are to be seen, it does not tell us. The champao 
in the Lai Bagh, which is said to be over a hundred 
years old, is nine feet in girth ; those of the Belur 
temple more than six hundred years old, are fifteen 
feet in girth ; the Hidamba coil trees, at Chittal- 
droog, are sixteen feet in girth. — Bangalore Spectator. 
Labour and Prices in India. — At the meeting of 
the Civil and Mechanical Engineer's Society held on 
January 8th, a paper entitled " Notes on Labour and 
Prices in India," was read by Mr. H. H. Parkinson, 
Assoc m.i.o.e., late assistant chief engineer to the 
Gaekwar of Baroda. The author stated in his paper 
that, whereas his wages are only one. tenth, the 
oommon labourer in India does one. seventh to one- 
eighth the English cost. It is preferred to avoid 
carrying spoil more than one hundred yards, and 
should filling be required at a greater distance than 
that, a fresh exoavation would be opened. The 
bricks in use are of very inferior quality, and vary in 
price from Us to £1 per 1,000. There are three 
qualities of lime, burnt with coal, wood, or rubbish, 
costing 14s 5d, I2s 7d, or 9s 9d accordingly, per 
cubio yard. Brick-work may be estimated at 10s, 
and concreted 5s 9d per cubic yard. Timber is 
mostly imported from Burmah, and wood in roof 
trusses, etc., costs 5s per cubic foot. — Indian Engineer. 
The Sumatra Tobacco Plantations Cohpan? 
(Limited) state in their report :— 1888 Crop. — Fields 
100 (acres about 130) were cultivated, and pro- 
duced 79,9371b. of tobacco, whioh realized in Ams- 
terdam £5,447 7s. 2d. ; less cost, £3,000 ; showing 
a profit of £2,447 7s. 2d. The price obtained, viz., 
1 guilder per £ kilo, was far lower than was confi- 
dently expected both by your directors and the 
vendors in view of the quality ; of the tobacco. 
Under the guarantee of the vendors that the profit 
on this crop should not be less than £5.000, those 
gentlemen have paid £2 552 12s. lod. This £5,000 
being available for dividend, to the exclusion of 
the shares allotted to the vendors, your directors 
on June 24th declared an interim dividend of 10 
per cent., free of income-tax, on £25,000, equal 
to £2,500, and now recommend a final dividend 
of 9| percent, free of income-tax, equal to £2,375; 
income-tax on £5,000, £125 ; thus absorbing the 
sum of £5,0t0. Your directors have pleasure in 
stating that the working of the estates is efficiently 
and economically carried out in every department 
confirming the high opinion they have entertained 
of the ability and energy of the administrator, Mr, 
A. P. Bernard. — L and G. Express. 
