748 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [May i, 1888. 
A Fibre Extracting Machine, presented to the 
Government of India by Sir Walter de Souza, has 
been despatched to the Andamans, where it will 
be tried on the fibre of the musa texilis, the culti- 
vation of which has been successfully undertaken 
there.— M. Mail, April 2nd. 
Tea in the Kelani Valley, we learn, is 
coming in at an unprecedented rate, the difficulty 
being to overtake the "flush" with the labour 
available. Our Kelani friends will have to get 
" pluckers" from the coast to help them, if the 
" flush " goes on at this rate. 
Silkworm Disease. — The proposal to bring out an 
expert from France to inquire into the spread of silk- 
worm disease in Bengal, and to suggest measures for 
its eradication, having fallen through, it is now in- 
tended by the Government to depute the Cirencester 
graduate, who has up to this been conducting experi- 
ments in Bengal, to Paris, to undergo a course of 
study at M. Pasteur's laboratory, or at one of the 
silkworm breeding farms in France. — Pioneer. 
Cinchona.— A recent report calls attention to the fact 
that the proportion of really good Oeylon bark offered 
at the publio auctions remains ,very limited. At the 
last bark sales only one parcel of Oeylon cinohona 
realized more than Is. per lb., and many renewed barks 
now offered, by their woody and fibrous character, 
dearly show that the renewing process is being resorted 
to too often, viz., that the renewed barks are stripped 
too soon. — Chemist and Druggist. 
Tea-Growing.— The following is from a letter from 
Mr. J. Hulett, Kearsney Tea Estate, Natal :— " The 
tea plant is remarkably well adapted to this climate, 
and from information obtained from Indian and Ceylon 
people, we should do well. No estates in Oeylon are 
yielding better than this. I have an area of nearly 
200 acres planted, and plucking area of 100 acres, but 
only partial on a portion ; after five years' old no 
difficulty in obtaining 1,000 lb. of manufactured tea 
per acre. We are still in infancy, and the manufacture 
is still imperfect, though my teas have realised as 
high as 2s. 6d. in London ; but we are not shipping, 
the colony at present taking all." — J£. <ft C. Mail. 
Kumaun Orchards.— Upwards of 4,000 grafted 
fruit trees were distributed, but the gardens could 
have supplied more, and Banikhet was able to 
distribute upwards of 8,000. The establishment of 
the gardens was reduced some time ago for economy's 
Sake, but economy has led to attenuated results, and 
the gain is not apparent. The Commissioner, who 
is giving the matttr great personal attention, has 
submitted schemes for improving the Kumaun. orchards 
and for organizing similar orchards in Garhwal. — Agri- 
cultural Reports N. W, Provinces and Oudh, September 
1887. 
Gold in Ceylon. — Eeooeds of the Geologi- 
cal Survey of India, Vol. XXI, Part I, has reached 
us with contents as follows : — 
Annual Beport of the Geological Survey of India, 
and of the Geological Museum, Calcutta, for the year 
1887. Crystalline and Metamorphic Bocks of the 
Lower Himalaya, Garhwal, and Kumaon, Section III. 
by O. S. Middlesmiss, b. a., Geological Survey of 
India.— (With 3 plates). The Birds-Nest or Elephant 
Island, Mergui Archipelago. By Commander Alfred 
Carpenter, B. N., H. M. I. M. S., S. S. "Investigator." 
Memorandum on the results of an Exploration of 
Jessalmer, with a view to the disoovery of Coal, by 
B. D. Oldham, a. a. s.m., f. g. s., Deputy Super- 
intendent, Geological Survey of India. A Facetted 
Pebble from the Boulder Bed ("Speckled Sandstone") 
of Mount Chel in the Salt-Range in the Punjab, by 
Dr. H. Warth. (With 2 plates) Examination of 
Nodular Stones obtained by trawling off Colombo, by 
E. J. Jones, A. R. S. M., Geological Survey of India. — 
The present Director is William King, b.a., d.sc, 
(honoris causa), Royal University (late Queen's), 
Ireland, Fellow of the Madras University, brother 
of Mr, ^liun King of the Ceylon Civil Service. 
We have marked the paper on the nodular stones 
found in deep wafer off Colombo for extract. The 
map of India shows that a large portion of the 
continent has been geologically examined and re- 
ported on, and as Ceylon is now joined to the Indian 
Trigonometrical system, we trust it will soon be 
similarly dealt with geologically. The following 
notice shews that Mr. Foote is the very man we 
want in Ceylon to report on the real value of our 
auriferous rocks :— 
Mr. Foote has the Madras Presidency with its im- 
mense area of the crystalline rocks, or gneisses among 
which, however, he is still carrying ont his latest 
distinction of a newer (Dharwar) series. At present 
the great interest attaching to this series of transi- 
tion rocks is not so much that it may fall in with, 
or represent, some or all of the various transitional 
formations of Central India, which have been treated 
of by so many of us under the names of Bijawars, 
Aravalis, Champanirs, and Chilpis : but that it is 
the series in which auriferous reefs are more par- 
ticularly developed in the Madras Presidency. I, 
myself, having had to work out the auriferous rocks 
of the Wainad region, which certainly appeared to 
me to occur among bands of the older gneisses, am 
unable to follow Mr. Foote throughout the whole of 
his generalizations, which would seem to tend towards 
an extension of the Dharwars into Wainad : but the 
fact still remains that he is perfectly cleir as to the 
Mysore country to which his attention has been more 
thoroughly devoted. In this way he has become the 
best gold man we have : not an expert in the com- 
mon acceptation of the term, which is properly a 
man capable of exploiting a region where gold is 
known to exist in greater or less quantity, but a 
geologist, experienced, par excellence, in the kind of 
rocks, or the particular formation likely to be auri- 
ferous in India. 
A Board of Agriculture. — We see with great 
pleasure, that it is proposed to establish a Government 
department under a responsible Minister. The 
only drawback is, that in our system of government, 
the _ exigencies of party directly or indirectly pre- 
dominate over public interests. It is very important 
at the present juncture, that horticulture should be 
recognised in the constitution of this new depart- 
ment, for it is obvious that while agricultural 
methods are no longer adequate to meet the circum- 
stances of the times, the requirements of the case 
would be very largely met by the introduction of 
horticulture or of horticultural methods. We earnestly 
hope that the Boyal Horticultural Society, in its 
reorganisation scheme, will not neglect its obvious 
duty in this matter. It is more than time that the 
gardener should be heard, and he could most 
effectively be heard through a gardeners' society. 
It is a splendid opportunity for the Society to 
prove to the publio that it is concerned in some- 
thing beyond the whims and fancies, however laudable, 
of those who find their recreation in horticulture, 
and with something more than the interests of those 
who cater for the supply of the requirements of the 
dilettante. Forestry, market gardening, and fruit cul- 
ture will ocour to every one as great, and, up to the 
present time, little worked departments ; but it is 
to the adoption of horticultural methods, the in- 
crease of scientific knowledge of the conditions under 
which plants grow, of the diseases which affect them, 
and the enemies that prey on them particularly, 
that the farmer of the future must trust. When 
he tills his field as carefully as a gardener makes a 
Vine border, when he is as careful to secure the 
right strain of Wheat and Mangel, or what not, as 
a grower of Chinese Primroses for market — when he 
avails himself of every resource of the chemist, the 
botanist, and physiologist, by putting their dis- 
coveries to the test of praotioal experiment before 
adopting any — there will be hope for the farmer. 
In the meantime let the Boval Horticultural Society, 
as beoomes its duty, bestir itself in the matter. — 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
