April 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
It may not be generally known that tho seeds 
of the acacia should be soaked in bot water. The 
plan I have found most successful is to pour 
boiling water over them and allow them to re- 
main twenty-four hours, then pick out for plant- 
ing all tho seeds that have swollen, and repeat 
the process as often as necessary. Some of the 
seeds will take a week's soaking before they begin 
to swell, but should on no account be planted 
until they do. Seed can bo procured from 
Messrs. Law, Somner & Co., Seedsmen, Melbourne, 
Australia, and for my last supply they charged 
mo 8s per lb. rather a difference from tho R2 
per ounce demanded by our local seed-sellers. It 
can also be had from Ootacamund, from the Gov- 
ernment JJotanical Gardens. A friend, writing 
from there in 1888, quoted R4 per lb. as the price. 
How ia it that our Colombo chemists have not 
turned their attention to the blue-gum ? The ex- 
tract imported from Australia is a regular cure-all. * 
No rain here since 2nd January, making to date 
54 consecutive rainless days. — Yours faithfully, 
ARTHUR J. KELLOW. 
" Ootacamund, 23rd April 1883. — I am sending you 
by Foreign Parcel Post (as I sent the last) 2 lb. of 
black acacia seeds (Acacia melanoxylon). I am 
only sorry I have not gathered you more, but I 
will do so whenever I have the opportunity. You 
can get any quantity of seods of both Acacia deal- 
bata, and Acacia melanoxylon, and in fact seeds of 
any other trees or shrubs, both indigenous, and 
foreign, by writing to Mr. Jamieson, Superinten- 
dent, Government Botanical Gardens, Ootacamund. 
You can also get from him seeds or plants of 
tropical and sub-tropical fruits, spices &0. For 
temperate fruits, like pears, apples, peaches, plums 
Ac. for plants apply to Mr. \V. Misquith, Oota- 
camund. Jamieson charges R4 por pound for both 
kinds of acacia, I should advise you to go in for 
cultivating Acacia decurrens, in preference to the 
other kinds ; it is far more valuable ; at the preent 
moment its bark is fetching from £30 to £40 per 
ton, for tanning ; and its wood makes one of the 
host stave woods for casks besides being good 
fuel. It is called the black wattle in contradis- 
tinction to (ho silver wattle (Acacia dealbata.) I 
have sent to Australia for 10 lb. of seed, the 
seed costs about 10 shillings a pound in Australia. 
I mean to go in for growing it extonsively if I 
can get sullicient land." 
CONSUMPTION OF WOOD FUEL ON IEA 
ESTATES AND BY GOVERNMENT ON 
THE RAILWAY. 
Nuwara Eliya, 25th Fobruary 1888. 
8ih, — I was pleased to notice in your issuo of 
23 rd instant your warning note to toa planters on 
this subject of fuel consumption. As it is a matter 
of very berious import to those engaged in tho 
manufacture of tea, I will make no upology for 
occupying your valuablo space. 
Mr. J. L. Shand's ostimate of our probable tea 
exports for W)0 is I think likely to prove cor- 
reot, Mr. Maitland-Kirwan's statement to tho con- 
trary in the London Standard notwithstanding. The 
estimate* which I framed some timo ago and pre- 
vious to Mr. Shand's cxcollont looturc on the subject 
of our teas wero for year ending 30th September 
1889, 851 millions, and lor 18'JO, 12J millions of lb., 
and this latter tallies almost exactly with Mr. Shand's 
estimate. 
When our exports will havo incroasod to this 
extent and with a further annual addition for 
«omo^)oars to conic oi nvu millions of lb., 
* Has Mr. Ke.'l >w overlooked « a.iudoi'» Eucalvuti " 
idvortidttUH'Lt.— L'd, ** 
677 
■Hgg^HggBgBeF .L — .- j i -^ t- r r- ~j-Liixj-i.jn «i M 1 — 
then the question of our firewood reserves will 
indcod have become in a double sem e a limning 
one. During the last few years I have kept a record 
of tho fuel necessary to produce large quantities of 
tea, and from these data we are now in a position to 
arrive at a fairly reliablo estimate of the quantity 
of fuel that must be consumed to manufacture 
our toa crops. I have not been able to ascertain 
the quantity of fuel per head of our labour force 
necessary for domostic purposes, but I have as- 
sumed it as being equal to the amount consumed 
in the manufacture of tho tea, and I am of opinion 
that this quantity is under, rather than over, tho 
mark. The districts of Dimbula, Dikoya, Maskeliya, 
and Pussellawa are those, which, it is presumed, will 
first feel the scarcity of fuel to be an expensive 
item in the cost of manufacture of tea. 
In 1800 these districts will probably produco 
15,000,000 lb. of tea, and if we assume that only 
one-third of the factories work their machinery by 
engine power, while the remaining two-thirds use 
waterpower, we have a consumption (including that 
required for domestic purposes) of 180,000 cubic 
yards, or say 45,000 tons per annum. In the younger 
districts there is a considerable quantity of felled 
timber still on the estates, but this will soon 
disappear, and new wood will have to be cut. I 
do not think the averago standing jungle will give 
more than 300 cubic yards of firewood per acre ; so 
that in these districts alone in a few years, there 
will be an annual consumption of fuel, equal to 
GOO acres of growing timber, and this consumption 
will bo a rapidly-increasing one. 
The consumption of wood fuel for tho island tea 
crop of 1890 would be on this basis 480,000 
cubic yards including that required for the 
domestic purposes of the labourers. The con- 
sumption of wood fuel on the railway (irre- 
spective of coal) ia 65,000 cubic yards, and this 
quantity will, of course, increase with the accession 
to traffic brought on the line by the increase in 
tea production. 
It is not, therefore, difficult to foresee, that in a 
very few years the tea enterprize and our railway 
system will bo consuming some (500,000 cubic yards 
of wood fuel annually, or (at 300 cubic yards to 
the acre) the growing timber on 2,000 acres of land. 
Under these circumstances, 1 would strongly im- 
press upon all planters, especially in the higher 
districts (if they wish to produce tea at tho mini- 
mum cost in the future), to at once set about 
planting quick-growing trees for firewood. 
The Government also, who havo in their posses- 
sion road and railway land reservations, should 
take immediate steps, as largo consumers of fuel, to 
plant up these lands, especially those contiguous 
to the railway with fast-growing timber. 
It is needless also to point out the growing 
scarcity in the tea-districts of timber for building 
purposes, and in planting up certain portions of 
estates with trees, this question ought to bo con. 
sidered as well as the matter of fuel. 
riantei-3, no doubt, will soon realise tho neoesity 
of immediato aotion 111 planting trees, but I greatly 
doubt if the Government will really awaken to tho 
fact that valuable time has been lost until tho 
island has passed through another decade of its 
history. H. K. RUTHERFORD; 
TDK DISCISSION UN CEYLON IISHKS- 
THE NEED OK l'KO I'ECTION AUUNST 
WHOLESALE KILLING. 
Central Province, March tith I— --v 
Sin,— This piscatorial debate cannot bo other- 
wise than intensoly interesting and instructive to 
a very largo proportion of the community— both 
European and native, whiou comprise a far creator 
