798 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [June i, 1888. 
science of stating facts and drawing inferences. 
His idea of the coolies on Bothschild and similarly 
situated estates getting fat without fuel for warmth 
and cooking being supplied to them in some form 
and at considerable expense to somebody, reminds 
us of the inference drawn by John the Minister's 
man from the text, " The ass sniff eth up the east 
wind." One of the inferences was " He may sniff lang 
eneuch or he gets fat on it." John was certainly 
abetter logician than "X. Y. Z," No one doubts 
that there are enormous supplies of firewood in 
Ceylon. Including the jungles of the low country, 
we think the estimate of the late Col. Fyers was 
that seven millions of acres in Ceylon were 
covered with trees of all sizes, from low jungle to 
lofty forest. Nevertheless wood fuel is scarce and 
daily becoming scarcer, where it is imperatively 
needid : it or a substitute. And neither the 
transit of wood nor charcoal, or the provision 
of a substitute for wood fuel, is a problem 
so easy of solution as our correspondent seems 
to imagine. Transit is costly in proportion 
to distance, and even the railway has to 
give weight to this consideration by having 
depots of firewood at various centres along its 
route. Mr. Butherford's calculation was that coal 
for tea factory purposes would be twice as costly 
as wood. This was when coal cost B20 per ton 
at Colombo. The proportions on the railway could 
not be very different, as we believe the present calcu- 
lations are that the wood consumed by the railway de- 
partment costs up to B12 per ton against B18 
for coal : the latter having recently fallen in price. We 
have always hoped much from the residuum 
of kerosene, deodorized. But the article is 
not produced, and now our hopes point to the 
promised cheap lignite from Siam. Meantime, 
in opposition to preconceived strong opinions 
and determination, we have felt compelled to go 
in for what our correspondent regards as " a curse," 
a steam engine. "Only a little one," however, as 
yet. We are also acting on the advice of those 
who think it wise for tea planters to devote some 
portions of their land to the cultivation of firewood 
and timber trees. To be compelled to resort to a steam 
engine was a deep mortification to us ; for, some years 
ago we ridiculed such a proposition in regard to an 
estate so well-watered as to be named the Aruvi- 
totum : the waterfall estate. But the waterfalls are 
in the lower portion of the estate, at from 5,000 
feet down to 4,600, while the factory is at 5,800 
feet. Its site was decided on with reference to tea 
grown as a subsidiary product and at a time when, 
like the vast majority of planters, we refused to 
recognize the fact that by Itemeleia vastatrix, the 
coffee on which so much had been spent, was 
fatally smitten, so that not even as a subsidiary 
product could it be profitably grown. Had we known 
all we now know, of course the site of the coffee store 
down in the lower portion of the estate and 
where the " water privileges " are centred, would have 
been the position chosen for a great central tea 
factory for the whole estate. For the present the most 
and best must be made, of the extensive establishment 
above, contiguous to the larger area of bearing tea. 
For eight months of the year and generally nine 
the supply of water is ample, and provision has 
to be made for an overflow from the dam. It is 
in the first three months of the year, generally 
amongst our best Hushing months, that we feel 
the pinch, and aB the tea yield increased, we were 
compelled to obtain a small steam engine, which, 
we suspect must shortly be superseded by a larger. 
The fu; I thus consumed, in addition to that re- 
quired for tea dryinc, involves considerable 
expenditure which we should be glad to avoid. 
Our correspondent would say to us and o there 
similarly circumstanced, get the power which exists 
in one part of the property transmitted to where 
it is wanted ; but, according to a way he has, and 
which is not so satisfactory to the advised as to 
the adviser, he does not tell us how. That is for 
the engineers to settle and the thing can be done, 
either by electricity or by a long belt or series 
of belts over 2,000 feet in length revolving 
on drums and worked by a powerful steam engine 
(out of the question) or an efficient turbine. 
The question has engaged attention and Mr. 
John Ferguson brought from England on the 
occasion of his latest visit, plans and specific- 
ations for transmission of power by electricity. 
What has answered for large mines is, we 
fear too expensive for a tea estate. Ab initio, we 
should have to provide a powerful turbine to gen- 
erate the electricity, and the obvious question is 
whether the power of the turbine had not better 
be applied direct to machinery erected within easy 
a ach of it. We must have a factory down below, 
if, in time, the whole of the upper buildings and 
machinery are not moved down. As this would 
be a work of time and very expensive, the ques- 
tion is whether it would pay better than having a 
steam engine, above to have an eight-horse power tur- 
bine below, from which power, ( all not lost in fric- 
ton) could be transmitted upwards by belting. We-quite 
agree with our correspondent as to the undesirability 
of using steam engines, but we have ventured to 
state our own case as a typical one and as show- 
ing that in some cases resort to steam cannot be 
avoided. The alternative in our case is to have a 
turbine of about 8 horse power set a-going two 
or three years in advance of a factory on the 
spot and for the sole purpose of transmitting power 
from its site at 4,700 feet above sea level to a 
point 1,100 feet higher. The endless belt needed 
would certainly require to be 2,300 feet in 
length, and besides the first cost of this 
(sure to be heavy), drums would have to be 
erected at intervals and there would be a good deal of 
wear and tear. Can any correspondent furnish an 
approximate idea of what the cost of the turbine 
and necessary apparatus would be, and the proportion 
of the eight horse-power which would reach the point 
1,100 feet above, after allowing for loss by friction ? 
Such a calculation would help us to estimate the cost 
of water power transmission which our correspondent 
apparently thinks so feasible. Transmission of 
force is one engineering problem, possible un- 
doubtedly, and we should, personally and for the 
sake of many brother planters, be very glad if 
the possible can he attained at a moderate 
cost. Another question for engineers especially to 
decide is, if in machinery intended solely to convey 
dessicating heat to damp tea leaves, it is possible 
to economize fuel, as is now done in regard to fuel, 
the purpose of which is to generate steam ? The 
cases may be analogous, but to our lay mind 
there seems a difference? We shall, however, be 
glad to hear that sensible economy of fuel in the drying 
process is possible, although we think our corre- 
spondent very sanguine indeed in anticipating that 
the small quantity of timber in a tea box can 
ever suffice to roast tea equivalent to its contents, say 
from 80 to 1001b. dried tea, equivalent to 320 to 4001b. 
of green leaf . Meantime, let us be thankful that tea 
boxes, like ships, can be made of metal as well as wood, 
and that Japan is able to send us an apparently 
unfailing supply of wooden shooks to be converted 
into boxes. But all said and done, may it not be 
judicious on the part of those who possess reserve 
forest to set some of it aside for timber und fire- 
wood, and may it not be still more advisable for 
others to devote portions of their land to the culti- 
vation of fast growing timber and firewood trees ? 
