6d 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST- [July 2, 1888. 
merly excelled. Such words as — " Ceylon teas, 
yes ! Liquor very well at first, but won't keep, 
wouldn't touch them." — one often hears ; and 
if the hearer be a Ceylon man, he thinks them 
ominous; for, if Ceylon teas once get a bad name 
it means a long run of low prices, and a hard 
fight to get a place again. But there is another 
and indirect way in which thjs same fault retards 
the sale of pure Ceylon tea. It is this : A very large 
quantity of so-called Ceylon tea is seut out in 
packets to be sold by grocers and co-operative 
stores ; and many of those packets contain a 
small (?) mixture of Java or Indian tea to keep up 
the Ceylon. 
Now, making every allowance for the good in- 
tention of those packers, I feel certain that Ceylon 
planters would very much prefer to send out a 
tea, able to stand on its own merits and 
which would not require bolstering. Let me ask 
you, for the sake of Ceylon, to urge the planters 
to have this reproach removed without delay. It 
is surely only a matter of curing attributable to 
under-fermenting and under-firing. Planters have 
been blamed by London agents, and brokers 
for over-fermenting and over-firing, and seem now to 
have gone too much the other way. Let them 
try to strike the proper medium, remembering that 
to turn out a raw tea, under-cured and under- 
fired, is much more injurious in its results than 
a tea fully cured and rather high fired. The former 
spoils by keeping, while the latter improves. — Yours 
faithfully. D. KERB. 
"Hints on Tea Manufactuke, Oolong Manufacture, 
Tea Tasting and the Future of Ceylon Tea in respect 
of Consumption and Prices, being Extracts from 
Papers Bead before the Dimbula and Dikoya Planters' 
Associations by A. M. Gepp," is the title of a 
pamphlet, a copy of which has reached us, printed 
at the " Times" press, containing information use- 
ful to planters. 
Ashes and Salt on Potatoes — The American 
Cultivator says it is an excellent plan, as soon as 
Potatoes are well up, to go over the piece and throw 
a handful of a mixture of salt and ashes on each hill. 
The preparation is soon washed down into the ground 
by rains. It repels insects, makes the Potatoes fair 
and smooth, and helps to draw moisture to the 
Potato during a dry time. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Sun Power. — Mr. Preece, in a recent lecture 
before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, stated 
that on a fine summer's day, the sun expends an 
average of 1 horse-power on every 30 square feet of 
the earth's surface in this latitude, or 1450 horse- 
power per acre. This great gift of energy is neither 
utilised nor stored by man at present, though Na- 
ture presents us with some of it in waterfalls and 
flowing streams. The sun itself has been more generous. 
Ages ■upon agt s ago it shoae with resplendent glory 
on a grand luxuriant flora of a uniform but flower- 
less character in a climate warm and damp. England 
formed part of a tropical jungle or swamp, where 
grasses, mosses, ferns, and sedges, Coniferae, Araucar- 
iese, Equisetacpte, Sigillarias grew and nourished, 
perished and fell in situ, to be covered up by the 
following geological formations and compr ssed into 
those grand seams of coal that form now the princi- 
pal source of England's greatness and wealth.— Gar- 
deners' Chronicle. 
A Novel System of Silage. — Mr. J. L, 
Thompson, principal of the Dookie Agricultural 
CoJJege, has in a report to the Department of Agri- 
culture communicated the result of an experimental 
conversion of green maize into fodder by means 
of a novel system of silage. The method adopted 
was that used in Great Britain for the preservation 
of potatoes. Last January a plough and earth 
scoop were employed to excavate a trench 30 feet 
in length, 10 feet wide and feet deep, the 
depth being increased to 5 feet by banking up the 
loose earth at the sides. The maize was then cut 
close to the ground, and packed lengthwise until 
the pit was brimful, after which the scoop was 
used to close the silo with earth. The usual 
covering of straw was dispensed with, but care 
was taken to bring the earth roofing to a point, 
so as to throw off rain, and to run a plough 
furrow round the pit, as a drain for surface water. 
After a lapse of more than three months the silo 
was opened by means of the earth scoop, and the 
maize found to be in excellent preservation. The 
cows, says Mr. Thompson, eat it with the utmost 
avidity, and there has been a notable improvement 
in the quality of their milk. In his opinion silage 
greatly improves the nutritive qualities of the maize, 
as the process of fermentation converts the natural 
starch into sugar, and makes its digestion and 
assimilation far easier. Mr. Thompson is fully 
convinced that his method of ensilage presents many 
advantages over the old system of desiccation, and 
recommends its adoption by all classes of far- 
mers. — Melbourne Leader. [Guinea and other 
grasses might in this way be stored in the wet 
season and be available in seasons of drought. — Ed.] 
Wynaad Planting Notes. — After a good many ex- 
cellent imitations in the shape of cyclones, we have now 
fairly decided that the monsoon has commenced. The 
weather has been exceedingly unsettled for a month past, 
and our rainfall during that time unusually heavy. The 
season, so far, has altogether been somewhat capricious. 
In February we had sufficient rain to bring out a 
very fair blossom, though, of course, the bulk of spike 
was at that time insufficiently developed to be much 
affected. This was followed by a long and exceedingly 
trying drought, and that again was succeeded by 
heavy storms. As much as seven inches in one day 
fell on some estates, and this was accompanied by a 
destructive hailstorm, which in many cases did much 
mischief. Some of the hail-stones measured three and 
a half inches across, and these literally tore the suc- 
cirubra leaves into ribbons. The second blossoms on 
most places were destroyed by this untimely weather, 
and the third and last does not seem to be swelling 
satisfactorily ; so I fear we have net generally much 
to hope for in the coming crop. Those amongst us 
who have Mark Tapley temperaments console ourselves 
(as usual) with the prospect for next year and un- 
doubtedly the trees promise grandly. I have never 
seen them in better heart, or freer— taking them 
altogether— from the innumerable ills to which 
coffee is subject. Unless Fortune wholly means to 
pass us by, the crop of 1889 should certainly be mag- 
nificent. But, after so many heart-breaking disappoint- 
ments, and so many cases of hope deferred, it is diffi- 
cult to believe in the possibility of really good times 
coming. This time, last year, we were iu high spirits, 
and great things were prophesied with regard to bumper 
crops and high pricss. These were but very partially 
realized, and our ardour was considerably damped by 
the report of an enormous crop due from Brazil. This, 
however, we now hope, has been exaggerated ; and, 
altogether, if we can tide pretty fairly over this year's 
shortcomings, we may suppose it possible that our 
crops for the following season will be paying ones. 
Labour is very scarce, but few of our Oanarese having 
come in. Their di!atorine?s in fulfilling their contracts 
is a growing evil, and if we had not the Ohermas irom 
the coast to depend on, we should find great difficulty 
in carrying on the estate work. June is always a 
trying month for our planters. The work seems to 
accumulate in the most uncanny way, weeds flourish 
exceedingly, the manure pits shout to be emptied, and 
the suckers on the coffee trees groan for hands to pull 
them off. At this crisis, we look over our contracts 
to find our gangs are all overdue, and then, down 
comes a good old monsoon burst, and the muddle and 
mess in everything becomes absolutely disgusting. 
—Madras Times, June 1st. 
