33° 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1888. 
TRIAL OF WATER-LIFTS AT SAID A PET FARM. 
On the 1st instant a tiial of water-lifts, viz., the 
Picottah, the jingle II bote, the double Mhote, au 
Improved Double Mhote, and Subba Row's Water- 
raising Inclined Plane, was held on the College 
Farm, Saidapet. The other gentlemen present first 
watched the working of Subba Rao's Water raising 
Inclined Plane. This consists of a very abrupt slope 
fitted with wooden rails, on which a truck moves up 
and down, the ropes of the bucket being fastened to 
the struck. The top of the truck on the slope is 
always horizontal. The water-lift is worked by a 
man and bull, weighing 640 lb., getting into the 
truck, which then moved down to the foot of the 
slope, raising a bucket, with 30 gallons of water, 17| 
feet high. The man and the bull then stepped over 
a plattoim and walked to the top of the slope by 
a path 42 feet long, which the bull took 30 seconds 
to ascend at the rate of about one mile per hour. 
As soon as the man and the bull got out, the truck 
was rapidly drawn to the top of the slope by the 
empty bucket which was let down loaded to half 
the weight of the truck. Mr. Lee Warner and 
other gentlemen watched the work of the water- 
lift for twenty minutes, 23 buckets being raised dur- 
ing that time. In the evening the water-lift was 
again worked for half an hour, during which time 36 
buckets, each shown to discharge 30 galloi.sof water, 
were raised. About 70 buckets, or 2,101) gallons of 
water, were thus raised per hour. If, as suggested 
by many of the spectators, a bull and a man were 
made to descend the slope in the truck, while 
another bull and man went to the top of the slope, 
the efficiency of the water-lift would be more than 
doubted. The water-lift does not cost more than 
R20, and can be constructed by any village car- 
penter. Certain suggestions for providing control over 
the speed of the descending track were made. 
The Single Mhote which is the ordinary water-lift 
or the country worked by a pair of cattle, did very 
good work at starting. It could not be worked for 
a sufficient length of time for want of water in the 
well. On Monday it was worked for 1 hour and 55 
minutes in the morning and for 1 hour and 49 
minutes in tho evening in the presence of Mr. Cengnl 
Rao, B. A., Mr. Thirumal Rao, B. A., Mr. N. Bhiijanga 
Rao, a retired Tehsildar, and Messrs. Thiruvengada Char- 
iar, Balasubramania Aiyar and Rangiah Naidu, all land- 
holders. The best pair of cattle on the Farm whose value 
was estimated by the judges at not less than RlflO, were 
employed. The total number of buckets (30 gallons each") 
raised m 3 hours and 44 minutes was 290, which is equi- 
valent to about 77 buckets, or 2,310 gallons per hour, 
19£ feet high. Both on the 1st and 2nd instant the 
public were shown how tiresome it is for the cattle 
to raise water by the Single Blhote, for nine robust 
coolies could hardly raise a single bucket of water, 
whereas two students of the Agricultural College, 
with no more difficulty raised a bucket containing 
twice as much water by means of the Improved 
Double Mhote. The Picottah and the Double Mbote 
were worked on Tuesday in the presence of the same 
judges except that Mr. Ragunartha Charriar, B. A., 
took the placo of Mr. Balasubramania Aiyar who 
was absent. The Picottah, worked by three men, 
raised in 63 minutes, 228 buckets containing 7 gallons 
each, or about 1,519 gallons per hour. The Picottah 
was then stopped as the water level had sank 
too low. 
TUe double Mhote (cost about R150) was worked 
by one of the two bulls employed at the Single 
Mhote. In 100 minutes it raised 132 buckets of 30 
gallons e ich, equivalent to about 79 buckets or 2,370 
gallons per hour. The Improved Double Mhote (oo's't 
about It 60; raised per hour about 60 buckets of 40 
gallons i acpj or 2,700 gallons per hour, and would 
have raised much more but for the excessive leakage 
of the mouth-piece; it was worked, too, by an in- 
different pair of the cattle belonging to the College 
Farm. It had one very serious defect, viz, that ns 
■ooii 8H tho drum was unbolted after the raising of 
■ bucket, the bucket was precipitated into the well 
with a great shock. This defect has now heett re- 
medied by Mr. K. V. Kishnasawmy Iyer, bailiff of 
the College Farm, by au ingenious contrivance where- 
by the force of the shock is utilised for raising more 
water, and perfect control on the speed of the de- 
scending bucket is secured. The Improved Double 
Mhote and Subba Ka/s Water-raising Inclined Plane 
will be given another public trial when the weather 
permits. The expense of the irrigation match was 
met from subscriptions. — Madras Mail. 
» 
TEA CULTURE IN CHINA AND INDIA 
CONTRASTED. 
The following is the first pragraph of a long arti- 
cle in the Japan Mail: — 
We have very small hope indeed that the efforts 
which various Chambers of Commerce in Cniua are 
making to place before the Chinese Government and 
people, suggestions which will enable Chinese tea 
growers to compete successfully in the markets of 
the west with Indian tea, will be followed by the 
desired results. These suggestions are all sound and 
prudent in their way; Chinese tea is weighted by 
lekin and export .laties where Indian taa is free; 
Chinese tea l. .-relic; .its c.llect their goods in small 
quantities, allowing the leaf to remain untouched 
until they have a large chop, while most In liau chops 
represent a single day's picking the leaf being treated 
while it is quite fresh, — these and much else which 
will be found in the special reports on the subject 
from the Shanghai, Foochow and Canton Chambers 
are preiectly true. But thej seem to us scarcely to 
go to the root of the matter. In China tea is grown 
by a large number of persons, each for the most 
part working his own little garden or plantation, 
aided perhaps, by half-a-dozen labourers. Neurly 40 
years ago Fortune," in ii is record of visits to the tea 
countries of China noticed that the plantations were 
vc ry small. Ho says in all his travels he never saw 
one which would produce C00 ches'.s, and not many 
which would produce 300. In In lia on the other 
hand the gardens cover sometimes thousand of acres; 
in Assam the average aize of the gardens in the 
whole province in 1887 was between 800 and 900 acres, 
and the lende cy is in favour of increase in s.z ; and 
diminution in number. On gardens of this extent 
tue latest and most improved machinery is ia uoe, 
large capital is expended, and every operation is 
conducted on a iarge scale with a consequent decrease 
in the cost of production. Capital and science are 
at work to attain the best results at the lowest 
possible figure. It is la c/rande culture agaiust la 
2>etite culture; cultivation on a large agaiust culti- 
vation on a very small scale, American wheat against 
British wheat, Australian meat and wool against the 
British articles. Hence it would seem that to com- 
pete successfully against Indian tea growers all along 
the line the Chinese will have to adopt Indian 
methods, and in the agrarian condition of China this 
scarcely seems likely. 
We quote the conclusion of the article: — 
Of course the total export of Chinese tea is still 
far beyond that of Indian tea. In 1885-6 the quan- 
tities were 66 million and 144J million pounds from 
India and China respectively; but Indian tea has to 
make its way in the United States and the con- 
tinent of Europe as it has done in Great Britain. 
And seeing that it has progressed in the latter 
country by leaps and bounds because of its good 
qualities, and in fair fight with Chinese tea, there 
seems at present no reason why it should not n 
time succeed equally well elsewhere. 
The Indian tea trade now gives employment to 
500,000 persons, engages nineteen million sterling of 
capital, and the harvest of the current year is esti- 
mated as worth £4,500,000. In recent years the 
price has steadily become less and less as in the 
case of Chinese tea, aud the tea industry in conse- 
quence is not so remunerative as in former years. 
This state of things the Indian planters have met 
by cheaper production by means of the production 
of machinery and other appliances by more rapid 
