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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[August i, 1888. 
1st. — I am of opinion that, if the jat is very high, 
heavj pruning is a mistake. 
2nd. — If ordinary, like most tea, that it does not 
matter considerably whether pruned heavily or lightly. 
3rd. — If the jat be inferior, heavy pruning is the 
only way of getting anything from it. 
The good jat tea flushed well from not necessarily 
very strong wood, while the ordinary and bad flushed 
best nearest the heaviest cutting. 
With ordinary and inferior kinds, tco, what was 
pruned heavily continues to show no present neces- 
sity of requiring again pruning, while such tea pruned 
lightly is already requiring the knife again. 
In all districts above 3,500 feet, I am inclined to 
consider the less frequent pruning is done the more 
satisfactory in every way will be the plucking and 
consequent making of tea, therefore, on the whole, 
I incline to the more severe pruning, unless very high 
jat has to be dealt with. My reasons for this are 
that it can thus be the more thoroughly done, and it 
will run fully three months longer before pruning 
again becomes necessary, and, expect for the first 
few months, is in every way more satisfactory. 
When mixed jat exist in a field, I prefer, with old 
tea, to have two heights, the one six inches above the 
other. The higher level I use for all the good kinds, 
and the lower for all the inferior. 
With ordinary kinds, especially if the estate is at 
all exposed, I prefer low trees to high, and my heavy 
pruning takes the form of cutting down to a low 
height rather than much clearing out of the busb. 
In bad jats, merely opening out the bush without 
cutting down very low is only followed by it merely 
growing up to the original size it was before pruned, 
and then again remaining inert. The only way to 
get at really bad tea is by cutting out all knotty, 
wiry stuff, or, indeed, anything indicating a des-ire 
to produce flower and seed, though, takeu any way, 
it does not give satisfaction. — Pekoe Souchong. — 
Local " Times." 
•♦■ 
CULTIVATION OF ECONOMIC PLANTS 
IN CEYLON. 
The annual reports by Dr. Trimen upon the gardens 
under bis charge in Ceylon are usually highly instruc- 
tive and the latest is no expeetion to the rule, as it 
contains some very interesting notes on economic 
plants and products. Tea cultivation and manufacture 
is said to have now attained the position of the leading 
agricultural industry in the colony, about 180,000 acres 
being under cultivation with the plant, whilst the ex- 
ports of tea in the last financial year exceeded twelve 
million pounds, the average price realized being nearly 
Is. Id. per lb. Coffee, its less fortunate rival, fell off in 
export to 180,000 cwt., and the coffee plants that have 
escaped the leaf disease are now beiug destroyed by a 
new scale-insect. Cinchona bark has still maintained 
a high position among the exports from the island, the 
quantity exceeding fourteen million pounds in the year ; 
but much of it has been sold at a price insufficient to 
pay expenses on producing it, and it is expected that 
the exports of bark will now rapidly decrease. The 
moral drawn is that quality and not quantity should have 
been the object of the cultivators, and reference is made 
to tne more far-seeing policy adopted in Java. Seeds of 
Bemijia pendunculata, the tree yielding" cupreabark," 
have hitherto failed to germinate in the gardens. The 
cultivation of the cubeb plant in Ceylon has been 
suggested as a probable remunerative industry in view 
of the enhanced price of the drug, and Dr. Trimen 
contributes some valuable remarks on the subject. 
Piper Cubeba is considered to be native in Java, 
Sumatra and Borneo, but can scarcely be said to occur 
wild now anywhere. Its cultivation appears to be 
carried on only in certain parts of Java and Sumatra, 
the business being almost entirely in the hands of the 
natives. So far as the mode of cultivation is known it 
appears to be similar to that of ordinary pepper, the 
stems being allowed to climb over the trunks of trees 
and the fruit being plucked before it is quite ripe and 
then carefully dried. The true I'iper Cubeba plant is 
however but little known, and is imperfectly understood 
by botanists. Several other species approach it very 
closelj, and even the plant cultivated at Kew from 
which the figure for P. Cubeba in • Medicinal Plants ' 
was drawn has since turned out to belong to another 
species. A figure takeu from a dried specimen of the 
true plant from Java will be found iu the ' Kew Miscel- 
lany ' for December, 1887' One difficulty in commenc- 
ing the cultivation of P. Cubeba arises from its dioecious 
character, all the plants that have flowered iu Ceylon 
siuce the commencement of the experiment having been 
male. Ipecacuanha appears to be doing somewhat 
better at Heuaratgoda than hitherto had been the caae 
at Peradeniya ; but although by more care in the pre- 
paration of the soil and choice of situation for the beds 
some ruots of finer growth have been produced, not 
much progress, on the wbolo, can be reported. Inci- 
dentally it is mentioned that by order of the Madras 
government a plantation of ipecacuanha is about to be 
formed at Nilambur, on the Malabar coast. The coca 
bushes at Peradeniya have j'ielded a large crop of seed , 
a considerable quantity of which has been sold. The 
stock was introduced from Kew, and the plant, which 
bears leaves differing somewhat in form from those 
of the typical Erifthroxylon Coca was probably derived 
originally from New Cranada. In Java two varieties 
of coca are now being cultivated, the leaves from 
one of which are reported to have yielded 0 - 87 per 
cent, of cocaine. Plants of Piper nigrum introduced 
from Singapore give promise of being a more vigorous 
and better variety than the native ones ; but out of 
two hundred cuttings of the Uncaria Gambier plant 
from the same source only one sickly specimen had 
survived. The report a'so contains information res- 
pecting the cacao, tobacco, and several india-rubber 
plants, and a number of introduced fruit-bearing species. 
— Pharmaceutical Journal. 
THE OIL PALM AT LOANDA. 
The following notes on the African Oil Palm 
(Eiais guineensis) are from a report on the products 
of Loanda, and are interesting as supplying an au- 
thoritative account of the manufacture of Palm oil 
from an eyewitness. Although the Oil Palm may 
be said to be a wild plant of these regions and 
requires no planting or cultivation, it nevertheless 
receives a certain amount of attention at the hands 
of the natives in the shape of pruning, lopping off 
dead and dying leaves, tapping some of the stronger 
leaves, with the object generally, it is thought, of 
improving the fruit. The huge spadices are said in 
some instances to bear, probably, as many as a thousand 
nuts or fruits, each about the size and nearly the 
shape of a pigeon's egg, ot a bright red colour, 
tinged sometimes with yellow and in some cases 
deepening into black. The outer covering of the 
fruit is from § — J inch in thickness, composed of 
fibrous matter and pulp, and containing the oil. 
To extract this the nuts are boiled and beaten to 
separate the oil from the pulp. This is afterwards 
skimmed off and put into pots ready for sale, and 
requires no further preparation. The hard seeds are 
cracked, and the kernels form an article of commerce, 
a fine white oil being produced from them. A few 
years ago the oil from this district was sold in 
Europe at about £40 per ton ; it has now gone down 
to £20 and there is no prospect at present of any 
improvement in price, so many substitutes of a cheap 
kind, notably petroleum, beiug now employed in 
manufactures where at one time only Palm oil was 
used, such as soap, candles, &c. The substance of 
the kernel after the oil is expressed is used to 
make cattle cake. The only agricultural implements 
in use are the hoe and the hatchet. — Gardeners' 
Chronicle. 
PEPPER AND ITS ADULTEEANTS. 
BY E. DAVIES, F. C. S., F. I. C. 
(A Paper read at a, Meeting of th Liverpool Chemists' 
Association.) 
Mr. Davies said the plant which yielded the pep- 
per of commorce was one of the Piperaceas, Piper 
nigrum beiug a climbing plant bearing its flowers in 
spikes. The flowers were unconspicuous, and were 
