854 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [June 2, 1890. 
The Noeth Wynaad and Manantoddy Syndicate, 
Limited, has been registered in London by Mr. 
Henry J. Betbell, 20, Abchurchlane, E. 0., with 
a capital of £10,000 in £1 shares. The object is 
to acquire on such terms as the directors of 
the company think proper concessions or interests 
in land, mines and hereditaments in India. — M. 
Mail, April 24th.'' 
Coffee,— The Batavia Nieuwsblad says that the 
Java coffee crop this year will fall so short as to 
give rise to serious financial difficulties with the 
Government. The paddy orop too looks unpromising, 
and the sugar yield is no better. A deficit in the 
Budget looks alarmingly near, but the diminished 
taxbearing power of the impoverished people allows 
no hope of additional revenue.— Penang Chronicle, 
April 19th. 
Dabjeeling.— More rain I am glad to say, good 
steady and businesslike. As I am writing (Thursday 
evening) it is coming down quietly and persistently 
as if Jupiter Pluvius intended to make up for past 
deficiencies in this way. The influenza epidemic 
reached us in due course, and pretty nearly 
everybody, including your correspondent, has had 
it. It is not a pleasant disease while it lasts, and 
certainly does not tend to put one in charity with 
all mankind;— Indian Planters' Gazette, April 22nd. 
Eastern Produce and Estates Company.— 
The full Beport and Statement of Accounts of this 
Company so intimately associated with Ceylon will be 
found given on page 839. The figures given 
Bhow the importance of this Company which 
holds estate property in this island to a value ex- 
ceeding £400,000. It is satisfactory to see that the 
Company has had a prosperous year and we think 
the prosDects are good, in view of the very judicious 
management which the Company's experienced Co- 
lombo and Plantations' staffs give to its affairs. 
A new process of salt manufacture has been 
discovered by Dr. Sigismund Pick, of Szeeakowa, 
Austria, who has for many years devoted his 
attention to the subject in connection with the 
manufacture of chemicals. Many people will be 
surprised to learn that in England salt is still manu- 
f actured in the way that was originally used-namely, 
by evaporating brine in open pans. Dr. Pick s 
process is to reduce the surface of evaporation and 
at the same time to decrease the amount of fuel 
consumed. With this purpose he has altered the 
shape of the pans, and has contrived a system of 
chambers, in which steam is forced, and after 
having performed its functions in one chamber is 
transferred to another. The advantages of the new 
system are obvious. In the first place there is a 
great saving in fuel, especially where exhaust steam 
is available. The present consumption of coal m the 
ordinary pan process is stated to be 12 ewt. per ton 
of fine white salt. Even where exhaust steam is 
not available for the new process, the consumption 
of coal is less than 4 cwt. per ton of salt Another 
important advantage is the absence of frequent 
repairs, and the small amount of wear and tear. 
These items alone, in the ordinary method of salt 
manufacture, add seriously to the cost of production 
not only in themselves, but by reason of the loss 
occasioned by long stoppages. Then there is the 
saving in labour. In Dr. Dick's system six men and 
two boys, formed into two twelve-hour shifts of 
three men and a boy per shift, are sufficient for 
working a plant having an output of fifty tons per 
day of twenty-four hours. Other advantages are 
the absence of smoke and deleterious vapours, and 
the great economy in space occupied. A htty ton 
per day plant only occupies an area equal to 
that covered by a Bait pan producing forty tons 
per week. — O. Mail- 
Me. J. S, Middleton of Mysore is a passenger 
home by the P. & O. S. S. "Ganges" after one of 
his periodical visits to his extensive cardamom 
properties. He declares Oeylon has brought down 
the average price of his staple product 75 per cent 1 
Mr. Middleton is full of praise of the coffee under 
shade in Mysore and Coorg. 
The new System inaugurated by Sir Lepel Gri- 
ffin in the Buby Mines Company is that 60 mine 
owners have now the right to mine, employing 
between them 420 meD, and paying R20 per man 
per month to the Company, and all restrictions of 
every sort and kind as to the disposal of their 
produce are removed. — M. Mail. 
A Veey Laege " Industeial Diamond " valued at 
5,000 dols was recently taken from Brazil to New 
York. It weighs 367 1-3 carats, is about two 
inches long, and looks like a chip of anthracite 
coal. This kind of diamond is so hard that it 
will not polish, and after being split up it is used 
to tip the drills employed in boring rock. It is 
only found in the Brazilian mines. — Madras Mail, 
May 8th. 
The Tea Duty.— Messrs. F; B. Long & Co., 
writing on 3rd April, thus refer to the good results 
likely to ensue for Ceylon tea on a reduction of 
duty :— 
The Budget, which is anxionsly looked forward to, 
is fixed for the 17th inat. A reduction in the duty 
(which is a heavy tax od the average price of tea) 
would no doubt greatly stimulate consumption, and 
bring Oeylon tea within the reach of the poorer class, 
who are after all the great consumers of tea. 
A Planting Machine. — The description of a plant- 
ing machine is included in the annual report of 
the Department of Forests at Washington for 18S8. 
The machine is drawn by horses and consists of 
a knife, which opens the soil to a depth of 16 
inches to 20 inches, followed by a ploughshare, 
whioh removes the soil to a width of 8 inches. 
A rotating apparatus of the machine, holding cuttings, 
then moves forward and places the latter in the 
soil successively. Two curved plates relift the soil, 
and two bent wheels or rollers come finally into 
position and press against the plant. With this 
machine one man can plant from 10,000 to 15,000 
cuttings a day. Operations have been carried on 
for the last two years with the machine and the 
experimenters are now able to report that seven - 
eights of the cuttings inserted in this way succeed 
and become plants. — Indian Agriculturist, April 26th. 
Cinnamon Again. — The Produce Markets Review 
of April 19th, thus refers toiCeylon's old staple 
and still important export — 
The neglect of cinnamon in this country is very 
singular, and our "good plain cooks" seem to know of 
no spice beyond nutmeg for flavouring the tops of 
puddings, tarts, &c. On the Continent, cinnamon is 
very largely used for such purposes and for similar 
ones, mixed with sugar or not. With the deadly mono- 
tony of ordinary British middle-class cooking, cinna- 
mon would introduce a small element of variety, and 
that it has unsuspected virtues, possibly prophylactic 
against the microbes of Thames water, is shown by the 
following extract from Tuesday's Daily News: — "A 
discovery has been made which shows that the love of 
our ancestors for drinks spiced with cinnamon was 
fully justified. What were not the Dutch ready to do 
to procure cinnamon and other spices for their mulled 
wines, and what, wonders of navigation did they net 
accomplish in their lumbering vessels in order to fill 
the spice-boxes of their house-wives? According to 
our Paris correspondent, Dr. Chamberland, M. Pasteur's 
chief assistant, has just discovered that cinnamon is 
fatal to the typhoid microbe, which must infest the 
sluggish waters of the Netherlands." 
