January 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
453 
workman can roll 400 to 500 medium-sized cigars 
daily. Sumatra leaf costs tliu makers from 3 rupees 
ts 4 rupees per lb. landed here. A pound of this 
leaf covers 500 cigars. A pound of country sorted 
wrapper will cover 100 cigars of same size. The tobacco 
used in the manufacture of cigars in Tricllinopoly 
comes from the Din ligul and (Joimbatore districts. 
Leaving Tricllinopoly on the 9th instant, we arrived 
at Dindigul ou the same day. 
irrigation iystem. — Received following information 
from tobacco cultivators : The land is ploughed in 
August after the first rains have set in ; ploughed 
seven times during the mouth. The lands are mauured 
with cowdung 10 tons to the acre ; sheep and goats 
are penned on the land : 1,000 sheep an acre for 
two or three days. The seed-beds are made flat, small 
bunds on all sides to retain the water; soil properly 
prepared, the seed is sown broadcast; transplanted 
when seedlings 6 inches high. In rainy weather, 
transplant all through the day. Seedlings are planted 
out i\ feet x feet. Irritated every other day 
for two months. The flower-bud appears in sixty to 
seventy days and watered for fifteen days afterwards. 
The plants ripen in soventy-fivo days from time of 
planting. The curing is on the same plan as that 
pursued in Gani village iu the Kurnool district. 
Brackish water preferred for irrigation owing to the 
salt iu it. Land appears to grow good crops of tobacco, 
the outturn being 750 lb. per acre. The soil I saw 
was of an ash color ; the best land I was told was 
of a red color. There was some of this 15 miles 
from Dindigul, which, owing to time being limited, 
I was unable to see. 
I went over Mr. Heimpel's cigar factory ; same 
manner of making up cigars as pursued by the Triclli- 
nopoly makers, although everything much cleaner. Mr. 
Heimpel also used Sumatra wrappers on his superior 
cheroots. 
Wo arrived at Madura on 10th instant and visited 
the farm there, the soil of which is, however, too 
sandy and light for tobacco. Some samples seen there 
showed a nice medium-sized leaf of good texture, 
Quality and burning capability very inferior. Left the 
Superintendent some seed and written instructions 
us to curing. 
From Madura we went to the C'oimbatore district; 
the soil, from the little I could see, would suit fiue 
quality tobacco very well ; soil red in color and easily 
workod up. Sample of tobacco seen at I'ttakuli was 
very poor ; of little value, rouud leafed, thick 
ribbed and not much gum. 
Some samples of tobacco received from Kistna 
are the best I have seen here : leaf medium size, 
veins and ribs fine, texture very good ; with proper 
shade-curing should turn out a first class tobacco for 
cigar-wrappers. 
Mr. Benson and I arrive ! in Madias on 1 Ith 
instant. 
I should suggest that some arrangoment may be 
made before I come down in August 1888, so that 
some suitable place may be selected tor teaching the 
Natives shade-curing, which 1 am perfectly certain 
would greatly improve the country tobacco. 
THE Cultivation of Coca. — A merchant in- 
quires : — " Can you toll mo where wo can put our 
hand on an account of any experiments tried in 
Ceylon with tho cultivation of coca. Wo have 
looked through tho Tropical dgriculturitt, but have 
not oonie across what wo want — namely its cultiva- 
tion in Ceylon." In the annual reports of the 
Director of the Peradeniya ( inrdens embodied in the 
TtOpieU Aijriiultitri.<t, reference will bo found to 
cooa, but we aro not aware that outside of Pera- 
deniya any experiment in coca cultivation has 
t-l. ii place, of any extent. We shall be glad to 
learn if thero has. — Ed. T. //.] 
HciiMKSK l'oui -r I'u vis. -The most interest. 
[rig of theso products, which came beforo the 
Chemical Examiner in liurma last year, was tho 
weed of .Irfocurpiia tHtegrifilta which yield* \ fast 
yellow dye much used by the nativeg. It may be 
extracted by boiling the wood with water, but more 
conveniently with alcohol. As thus prepared it is a 
resin resembling the colouring matter of turmeric. 
The leaf of the teak tree when crushed yields a red 
dye which dissolves in alkalies, forming a blue or 
violet solution. It is a mixture of two or more 
substances. The colour is principally due to a 
crimson body which may be separated from the others 
by ether, which dissolves it. It forms insoluble com- 
pounds with lead and baryta. The nim tree, used as 
a febrifuge in India, yields a resin which appears to 
be the active principle. The examination of it is not 
finished. — M. Mail. 
Paddy Blight in Jaffna. — I am informed that the 
paddy plants in most of the villages of Jaffna are 
this year also, as in last year, affected by a disease 
called in Tamil the "kurukutti, " literally meaning 
the destroyer of tender shoots. This is, of course, a 
destruction caused by certain iusects in a certain 
stage of the plant, when there is not a sufficient 
supply of water. If there is water euough, the 
insect cannot approach the plants. Last year when 
I was in Jaffna, I had examined a paddy plant so 
affected, and found some insects living at the bottom 
as in a white-washed house. These metamorphic 
insects lay eggs, aud in their larval state seem to 
feed on the tender shoots, and in their normal state 
become flies. They leave a limy secretion which 
binds up the stalks together, giving the stalk the 
appearance of a white-washed stick. The best remedy 
for this would be to allow a sufficient quantity of 
water into the field, so as to cover the plants to 
three-fourths of their height, so that these depradators 
may be washed away and drowned aud fresh shoots 
come up. But what is poor Jaffua to do which is 
dependent solely on heaven's refreshing showers? — 
A. SwAMYNATHAPiLi.y, Agriculturist. 
Sugar and ManohBS. — Au interesting contribution 
to the discussion of agricultural topics was receutly 
laid before the Barbados Legislature in the second 
annual report of the results obtaiued on the experi- 
mental field at Dodd's Reformatory, by Mr. J. B. 
Harrison, tho Barbados Professor of Chemistry, and 
Mr. J. Bovill, the Superintendent of the Reformatory. 
The object of these experiments was to ascertain : 
1. The effect of the various manurial constituents 
when applied to the ordiuary Bourbon variety of tho 
sugar cane upon the soil aud under the climatic 
conditions existing during the y6ar at Dodds. 2. To 
ascertaiu th i value of the new varieties of sugar cane, 
selected by, and forwarded under tho directions of 
Mr. Morris from Jamaica, aud to compare them 
with the varieties at present' cultivated in Barbados; 
ami To continue the investigation into the com- 
position of the rainfall which was commenced in 
1885. Tho excellent work which is being carried out 
on the experimental farm is vory apparent from the 
series of careful analyses and the various suggestions 
which are to bo found in tho pages of the report. 
The report commences with au analysis of the rainfall 
for the period under investigation — December, 1885, 
to April, 1887 — which amounted to S588 inches. 
The highest rainfall occurred on August 10. IS-iti, 
and amouuted to 9 - 14 inches ; the lowest in April, 
and was '05 inch. It is somewhat interesting to 
note that careful experiment has led Messrs. Harrison 
and Bovill to the conclusion that the Bourbon variety 
of the cane now generally cultivated is the one best 
Baited to the condition ol tho soil and climate, and 
that "with t'.io exception of the Mauritius cane, the 
varieties selected by Mr. Morris do not exhibit, 
under preseut conditions of cultivation, any well- 
marked characteristics to reommsnd them to the 
planters." The experimentalists find it difficult to 
reconcile tho results obtained by theru and those 
obtained by Mr. Morris. They can only suggest 
that the discrepancy may arise either from tho un- 
favourable climatic conditions existing during 18*5 
and the early part of 1888, or to tho change iu soil, 
ollmate, and culture, or that the varieties are uutuitod 
I for tho climate and soil of Dodds.— Odoniti m\d IMi*> 
