2*8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1887. 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO HOOPING TEA PACK- 
AGES FOE LOCAL SALE. 
Colombo, 5th Sept. 1887. 
Dear Sib, — The lids of packages should be in two 
or more pieces, one piece being wnhooped, allow- 
ing such portion to be removed for sampling with- 
out cutting the hoop iron. If this was attended to, 
it would save the sampler considerable time and 
trouble and the packages would appear much neater 
after nailing up. 
I notice some planters hoop the top and bottom 
corners of their chests only. Packages, unless the 
side planks are of one piece of wood, require 
strengthening at the sides, so as to prevent the 
bottom half of the package coming away from the 
top. If your planting readers want an illustration 
of this, I would recommend them to go on board 
ship and see their packages being stowed away in the 
hold.— Youra faithfully, FRANCIS F. STREET. 
TEA WITHERING. 
Matale, Sept. 5th, 1887. 
Dear Sir,— I forgot to mention why I wrote 
for information about withering. If I am not 
mistaken the " Planting Molesworth " says "4 1b. 
green leaf =3 lb. withered," i. e, a 75 per cent wither. 
Rutherford's Note-book 100 lb. leaf withers down 
to 67 lb. and I have been told it is safe to wither 
down to 57 per cent. That means that leaf can 
Bafely be withered from 75 per cent to 57 per cent, 
a difference of 18 per cent. Now I wish to ask 
practical planters and I hope they will answer me, 
if withering down to 75 per cent will not break 
the leaf in rolling ?— and if 57 per cent the leaf 
will not be overwithered ? 
One of the best tea makers, I might say the 
best in the island, says overwither rather than 
underwither. While a correspondent to the Indigo 
Planter's Gazette, from which you copy in T, A. page 
133, August 1887, writes :' — Be careful not to over- 
wither, better to be a little under done. In the 
latter case you lose a few tips, and get some 
broken tea, but you save the liquor, while in the 
former case all the strength has gone, and you 
get a hard, dry brassy liquor." 
If these questions are answered I should wish 
to ask a few more, because a beginner reading books 
on tea manufacture reads portions that seem to 
oontradict each other. E. B. 
COFFEE "GREEN BUG" IN COONOOR. 
Sir, — Now that this new " peat" has shown itself 
on some of the estates in the Ooonoor district, may 
I ask those planters, through your valuable paper, to 
let no false delicacy prevent them from giving pub- 
licity to their efforts in trying to stay this new calam- 
ity for such it is sure to be. If an effort is not 
made to stop it in its early stage it will be ;i bad 
look out. There must be a cure, so let all those 
affected try and find it, and then tell others what 
they did, so that we may be ready with a remedy 
when our turn comes. All the talking in the world 
won't stop it, nor will it disappear by saying " I 
havo it, but do not think it will spread." What I 
say is, if you have it, try to get rid of it. 
Ooonoor, 24th Aug. N H Ay 
— M. Mail, Aug. 27th. 
THE SIZE OF BREAKS OF INDIAN TEA. 
To the Editor of The Ifomc and Colonial Mail. 
Sir,— As .September 1st draws near, when every one 
fully expects the new regulations as to the size of 
sampling breaks to come into operation, there are 
rumour* afloat to the effect that some importers are 
unwilling to consent to the proposed alteration. I 
wcuturo, therefore, to aek for space iu your colusuui 
to make an appeal to them not to put any difficulties 
in,' the way. I think the proposed limit of twelve 
chests, twenty half-chests, and forty boxes, will really 
be the minimum that it will be possible to entertain, 
if business is to be carried on in daylight, during the 
next six months. 
I extremely deprecate such a thing as a conflict be- 
tween buyers and sellers. Mutual forbearance and good 
will ought to rule. The large buyers have shown 
wonderful forbearance for years past, whilst little lots 
of eit;ht or ten half-chf-sts have been sold the net 
weight of which perhaps would barely equal four chests. 
Even on the proposed scale twenty half-chests will 
frequently contain but 800, b. ; and as almost any buyer 
can now deal with thirty or forty chests it seems to 
be time the planters should aim at bigger things than 
they did thirty years ago. — I am, &c, 
D. F. Shillington. 
The Fuel op the Fdtdre. — This question, 
which is down for notice at the Dimbula planters' 
meeting, is becoming a very serious one in regard 
to tea. Coal is twice the cost of wood, and it 
seems doubtful if kerosene oil can be obtained for 
less than twice the cost of coal. Our hope largely 
centres in oil residuum, deodorized, if that is 
possible, and perhaps mixed with charcoal or coke. 
There is, of course, the greater danger of the 
inflammability of oil, but from a long and inter- 
esting article in the American Oil Review, which 
we shall quote, its superiority otherwise over coal 
seems very great. Fewer men are required, there 
are no cinders or ashes, and the heating power 
is said to be considerably more than twice that of 
coal. For use in tea factories the odour is the 
great objection, but science can no doubt overcome 
that objection. The question will then be one of pricfj 
The Decrease in Palmyra Plantations. — A cor- 
respondent justly complains of the decrease in pal- 
myra plantations in the North. We have indeed, more 
than once, remarked with anxiety the lamentable fact 
now brought to our notice. As our correspondent says, 
people go ou cutting down trees by hundreds, and 
never, it seems, at present, dream of supplying tbe 
voids so made by fresh plantations. Besides the trees 
felled for home use, great numbers are yearly exported 
to India, yet " vadalies," or young palmyra plantations, 
hardly ever meet the traveller's eye. Formerly, it was 
a custom among the country landowners, at the birth 
of a child, to plant a field with palmyras, which would 
begin to produce when the child came of age. Wby 
has such a profitable custom fallen into disuse Y We 
believe the reason is that the new generation find that 
palmyras take too long growing. Men are not satisfied 
now with what was ample for their forefathers. They 
must have a quick and large return. They do not mind 
which will be most profitable in the long run, they 
want to see the result at once. If you plant coconuts, 
before ten years they begin to produce, and they bear 
largely. Palmyras will not bear before 20 years, and 
their produce is not easily convertible into money ; 
therefore, men conclude, palmyras are not worth plant- 
ing. This is very pernicious reasoning. Coconut 
planting is very good indeed, but palmyra planting 
presents advantages not a few. Palmyras are slow 
growing, but they last much longer, at least three 
times as long as coconuts ; palmyra fruit does not sell 
as coconuts do, but one coconut tree occupies as much 
ground as at least twenty palmyras ; a drought or a 
storm will destroy a number of coconut trees, though 
perhaps not a single palmyra will suffer. Besides, and 
above all, wheu the coconut tree is too old to bear, it is 
all over with it, it cannot be turned to any practical 
account, whilst palmyras by their timber will bring in 
a largo income. Such being the case, we cannot too 
strongly urge the people of the North to revert to the 
good old custom of planting palmyras."— *' Jaffna C. 
Ouardiau." 
