460 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January 2, 1888. 
kind would send a lot of us out of our minds, and 
fill the Home for Incurables. I got my first ray 
of comfort, through cherishing a wickedly heret- 
ical opinion. This unholy suggestion presented 
itself to my be-fogged mind in the daring ques- 
tion : Is it possible that one of these " tea chaps" 
could put on "side"? After this effort the mental 
atmosphere cleared somewhat, and I was enabled 
to see that tea is not half so particular as a tea 
authority, and that however scientific and elaborate 
his style of culture may be, the tea plant does not 
necessarily retaliate the neglect thereof. I could re- 
member what I had seen in one of our famed 
gardens when I went one day to have a look at their 
pluckers, having heard from the manager before 
what their system was. It was a very simple system, 
but I did not find it quite carried out. A great 
deal more was taken than was allowed, and yet 
I suppose every effort had been made to keep things 
right, only with the scores of pluckers at work, 
Tamils and Sinhalese, how little could be done. 
Yet spite of this seeming laxity and want of rule, 
the results financially have been a splendid success. 
Systems of elaborate plucking break down in the 
field and are bound to. Fancy poor Eamasamy with 
the following in his mind, rendered more limpid even 
than the original when translated into durai's Tamil : — 
"Pluck to a shoulder: primary growth after pruning 
pluck at about three leaves, then take half the 
top leaf allowing two leaves and a half (a shoulder) 
to remain. Secondary growth pluck at about two 
leaves and take half the top leaf equil, one-and- 
a-half leaf remains ; the sides the same way, begin- 
ning at one leaf higher, getting to the one-and-a- 
half leaf stage at the tertiary instead of the secondary 
growth 1" 
And all this wealth of loving care Mr. Armstrong 
assures us is necessary with 'a lower class 
hybrid" 1 When planters read such detailed in- 
structions, bearing the imprimatur of authority, it 
affects them in several ways. The men ^ho are 
in the thick of the work, and have some experience, 
"smoil a smoil," put the thing aside, and go on 
pretty much as before. The others, who have not 
yet got their tea in bearing and are filled with 
that reverential respect for authority so becoming 
to inexperience, finding the depths so very deep, 
dismi ss the subject from their minds in the mean- 
time — no need to worry themselves yet. In time 
they too get an increase of knowledge of a practical 
kind, and laugh in their turn. 
If a proprietor wanted to quarrel with his manager 
or S. IX, I fancy he could not get up a 'row' readier 
than by handing him Mr. Armstrong's remarks on 
Plucking, with the request to carry them out. He 
would very soon have an opportunity to " let into 
him." Without doubt there is much valuable mat- 
ter in this paper of Mr. Armstrong's, but it is just a 
little hard to get at. It wants the services of the 
Grand Squeezer to make it available for the vulgar 
mob. The story of that official's rise is as follows :— 
" Long ago the library of the Indian Kings was 
composed of so many volumes that a thousand 
camels were necessary to remove it. But once on 
a time a Prince who loved reading much and other 
pleasures more called a Brahmin to him and said : 
'Books are good, O Brahmin, even as women are 
good, yet surely of both these goods a Prince may 
have too many; and then, 0 Brahmin, which 
of these two vexations is sorest to princely 
flesh it were hard to say: but as to the 
books, O Brahmin, sque. ze ' em ' 1 The Brah- 
min understanding well what the order to 
' squeeze 'em ' meant (for he was a bookman 
himself, and knew that as there goes much water 
and little flavour to the making of a very big 
pumpkin, so there goes much words and very little 
thoughts to the making of a very big book), set 
to work— aided by many scribes — striking out all 
the idle words from every book in the library ; 
and when the essence of them had been extracted 
it was found that the camels could carry that 
library without ruffling a hair. And therefore the 
Brahmin was appointed ' Grand Squeezer ' of the 
realm. Ages after, another Prince who loved read- 
ing much, and other pleasures a good deal more, 
called the Grand Squeezer of his time and said : 
' Thy duties are neglected, 0 Grand Squeezer ! Thy 
life depends upon the measure of thy squeezing !' 
Thereupon the Grand Squeezer in fear and trembling 
set to work and squeezed, and squeezed, till the 
whole library became at last a load that a foal 
would have laughed at, for it consisted of but one 
book, a tiny volume, containing four maxims. 
Yet the wisdom in the last library was the wis- 
dom in the first." When the Grand Squeezer of 
today applies himself to the paper under notice 
what will be the result ? Doubtless there would 
be some aphorisms left, which would entitle Mr. 
Armstrong both to our gratitude and honour. 
Peppbbooek. 
NUTMEGS AND COFFEE IN NETHER- 
LANDS INDIA. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
By last advices from Banda, the news of a rise in 
the price of nutmegs and mace at Singapore and in 
Europe, has forced up the value of these articles 
respectively there to 115 and 157 guilders per picul. 
It seems however that growers in that quarter have no 
prospect of profiting long by this turn in their favour. 
As appearances go, not much of a crop can be expected 
from the nutmegs from August to November. The 
Yield during that period is hardly expected to cover 
working expenses. They do not anticipate a change 
for the better till early in the following year. The 
crop then is looked forward to with eager expectation 
in the hope that it would improve matters. Even 
this depends upon the absence of scorching winds and 
heavy rains to cause the nuts to drop off unripe. 
In that case their position will be an unenviable one. 
This year's coffee crop in Java looks promising 
enough. The weather has proved as favourable for 
the purpose as can be desired. The heat and rain 
are both moderate enough to suit the planter's re- 
quirements. Leaf disease turns out to be decreasing. 
In short, appearances' point to a remunerative year 
for coffee growers. 
In these hard times, planting enterprise has proved 
so unprofitable that large areas of land taken up for 
estate operations have been left on the hands of the 
Java Government, from inability on the part of the 
lessees to cultivate them with any prospect of success. 
♦ 
BRAZIL AND THE COFFEE MARKET. 
Reliable information respecting the prospects of agri- 
culture in Brazil would be of great value to coffee plant- 
ers in Southern India and elsewhere. There is, how- 
ever, very little available, and even that is often mis- 
leading. Those who believe in the likelihood of high 
prices continuing point to the facts that the stocks of 
coffee are 6,000 tons less than tliey were two years ago ; 
that the last Brazilian crop was small ; that it is ru- 
moured that the plantations there are being attacked 
by disease ; and that the planters are having difficulties 
with their slaves- On the other hand the market has 
been lately dopressed — which means, in other words, 
that large holders have been frightened ioto selling at 
a loss — by the reports of the blossom this year being 
very fine, and of extensive openings for the cultivation 
in various provinces of Brazilian Empire. That any 
one should be influenced by the first of these statements 
speaks badly for his intelligence. About the time that 
the blossom comes out the planters are eudeavouring to 
raise money for the following season's working, and 
are not inclined to spoil their chance of getting it. The 
