104 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August r, 1887 
" the purling tears " had their source in the 
worship of the prosaic rupee. 
The late Colombo Tea Sales are not giving 
satisfaction to several who send their produce thereto. 
The low bids and the better prices secured in 
private are regarded as somewhat of a hole-and- 
corner kind of style of doing things which ought 
to be avoided. When you find a lot where the 
bidding closes at 88 cents, and the same even- 
ing RP15 offered and which was afterwards further 
improved, there is then ' clearly some food for 
thought. I saw a broker's letter on the subject 
with an explanation, but even with that the 
difficulties did not all disappear, A few more 
instances of this kind and our local market will fall 
into disrepute. 
The Weather is hot and dry. and as for the tea 
plants lately put out, they are having a roughtime 
of it, and must be getting up no end of a thirst. 
I would, however, we had a shower. Peppeecobn, 
AN INDIAN GOVEENMENT (THAT OF THE 
N. W. PROVINCES) ENCOURAGING THE 
USE OP TEA. 
The following curious and interesting inform- 
ation is furnished by the Pioneer: — ■ 
The Excise Report for these Provinces for the 
year 1886 is remarkable in two or three respects. 
It contains a novel and interesting suggestion re- 
garding tea, which we reserve on account of its 
importance for fuller treatment. Briefly the Gov- 
ernment explains that in as humble way, and with 
the good help of various wealthy Municipalities, it has 
for some time past been endeavouring to increase 
the sale of tea, both in the dry and in the prepared 
state, among the native population; and that it 
regards the spread of a taste for tea-drinking as 
the most effectual way of counteracting the crav- 
ing for alcohol which the excise laws seem in 
vain to strive against. This position is a novel 
one to persons who, when they have nothing better 
to do, are ready to run a tilt against Govern- 
ment for encouraging dram-drinking among the 
population by means of its distilleries and ex- 
cise shops. The local Government's contention 
is that it does all it can by its excise laws to 
make drinking difficult and costly, and yet the 
people will drink, and will add to the revenue. 
Our inquiries regarding the experiments alluded to 
by the Government lead us to the belief that 
they would have succeeded better had their main 
direction been somewhat different. The Aligarh 
attempts, for example, have been mainly restricted 
to selling ready-made cups of tea, and subsidising 
persons to keep a tea-house, There are many obsta- 
cles to such a scheme. The people are not suffi- 
ciently " clubable" to enjoy a coffee-shop : milk and 
sugar add to the price of the article : the sale stop3 in 
the hot weather months, for our native friends do 
not see the force of increasing during that season 
the natural temperature of the body. Anyhow, no 
tea-shop seems to properly pay its way, A more 
hopeful policy wou d be to do as the recently 
formed Calcutta Association appears to contemplate, 
namely, to sell dry tea as cheap as possible in 
small quantities in all our large cities, and leave 
to domestic enterprise the task of finding out how 
to make it. Why should the Government suggest 
to its subjects that the only way to drink tea is with 
milk and sugar ? These accessories are the greatest 
bar to the spread of tea-drinking in India, for 
sugar costs something, and milk is an impossible 
luxury among the poor, to whom tea by itself 
would be a real stimulant and an efficient medi- 
cine in feverish times. The Chinese do not want 
milk and sugar, and our aim should be to educuL- 
a people, as poor and as parsimonious at the 
Chinese, to take to tea as the cheapest and the 
best of all possible stimulants. It is pure in- 
sularity on our part to try to make them regard 
it as inseparably connected with articles which 
have no necessary connection with it. 
♦ 
Poisoning by Nctmeg. — A case of poisoning by 
nutmeg is recorded in the "British Medical Journal 
(p. 1085), in which one nutmeg ha 1 been eaten by a 
patient as a cure for diarrhoea. It caused him to 
become giddy, stupid and very drowsy all next day. 
The narcotic properties of these seeds, and of others 
of the same natural order, do not appear to be 
generally known, and seem worthy of investigation.— 
Pharmaceutical Journal. 
Plantehs' Association of Ceylon. — We have re 
ceived copy of report for year ending February 1887 
which contains among other matters, a good dea 
about the following subjects of interest, generally 
to planters: — Admixture and Adulteration of Coffee. 
Mr. A. E. Scovsll on the Tea Mirkat, Ceylon Tea 
Syndicate, Analyses of Ceylon Soils, Cinchona 
Statistics, Report on Cinchona Cultivation in Javs, 
Praedial Products Ordinance. 
Cacao Hcsks.— The husks or shells of cacao seed are 
sometimes utilize! for making a cheap baverage, and 
are also said to be employed in adulterating ground 
spice*. Mr. P. S. Clarkson reports (Amer. Journ. 
Pharm., June, p. 277) that he has found them to 
yield 9 - 07 per cent, of ash, which besides the usual 
constituents, contained aluminium, also found by 
Wanklyn in the ash of cacao. In addition there were 
obtained 0 9 per cent, of an alkaloid that gave the usual 
reactions for theobromine ; 5 - 32 per cent, of a 
fat corresponding with cacao butter; 0 '93 per cent, of 
an odorous resin soluble in ether and alcohol, as well as 
albuminoids and colouriug matter. — Pharmaceutical 
JoumoU. 
Watering Trees Against Walls.— After the cold 
and dry spring came to an end, and in spite of the 
heavy snowfalls, wlrch should have moistened the 
soil but did not, the latter was very dry about the 
roots of wall trees on south and east aspects at Longford. 
The borders therefore wdre thoroughly watered then, 
most of the trees being soon afterwards in flower. 
Since the formation of the fruits the borders have 
received several waterings, to pr eserve the borders in 
health and to prevent fruit dropping. There is at all 
times more absorption of moisture at the roots of wall 
trees than is the case with trees growing in the open, 
by reason of the closeness of both, soil and roots to 
bricks and mortar, and the warmth imparted thereto 
by the sun, as well as the extra drainage afforded to 
the soil in which the tr-=es are growing by the 
foundation of the wall. — H. W. Ward.— Gerdenei *' 
Chronicle. 
Supebphosphate op Lime. — Mr. Samuel Barlow, 
Stakehill House, Castleton, Manchester, has contributed 
an interesting article to the Agricultural Gazette. He 
states that, having a field of Turnips badly infested 
with fly, he tried the experiment of dusting a few of 
the plants with superphosphate of lime, and found 
that it destroyed the fly entirely. He then had the 
whole field done with the superphosphate, and the 
result was the entire annihilation of the fly. He also 
had some large plants of Pansies that were badly 
infested with slugs — hundreds sheltered themselves 
under the tufts of foliage, and had to be picked off. 
A dressing of superphospate was placed oa the soil 
below the tufts, with the result that the slugs were 
quite destroyed ; it also kills wood-lice. Mr. Barlow 
recommends a dressing of superphosphate of lime on 
all garden crops, and plants attacked by slugs, snails, 
&c. " This application is sure to be much more effect- 
ive than dusting with powdered quicklime, which 
c'.i aiges to "irbo.iate of lime on exposure to the atmos- 
phere for a few minutes, and is then harmless to slugs. 
I fouud by experiments that after superphosphate of 
lime had been r»ined upon for ten hours, it was still 
powerful to ueauoy slugs. The superphosphate em- 
ployed is the ordinary 25 to 29 soluble." — R, D,— 
Gardener? Chronicle. 
