374 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1888. 
the request that it should not be forwarded till after 
his death. He offered no further explanation, except 
stating with an expression of bitterness, that he 
was a Ceylon tea-planter ; and that it was not Time 
that had placed his withering hand on his wrinkli-d 
brow. Albeit his grey eye had no lustre in it, his 
cheeks were sunken and pale, and the load of three 
score years and ten seemed to rest on his once 
ample shoulders. As nothing has been heard of 
him since, it is to be presumed that he is dead 
especially as he appeared to have been on his last 
legs then. The packet contains, probably, his last 
will and testament, and the writer ventures to suggest 
that it had better be opened before your legal advisers 
in their capacity of Notaries. 
Tee Contents or the Packet :— The Song of the 
Roller-shed (in the Days op Roller-worship.) 
With features haggard and worn, with eye-lids heavy 
and red, 
planter stood at his factory door, watching his 
roller-shed : — 
Roll, roll, roll, from muster call till dine ; 
And roll, roll, roll, till the hour-hand points to nine : 
" Kinmond" and "Barber" and " Giaut," and "Jack- 
son " and "Kinmond " and " Kerr," 
Till over the rolh he falls asleep and dreams of the 
grind and the whirr. 
Roll, roll, roll, from weary chime to chime, 
And roll, roll, roll, to the rule of the Geppian time ; 
Oh men with your acres of wealth, who watch for the 
sale and the strife, 
It is not mere souchong you grind away ; but the years 
of your manager's life. 
Roll, roll, roll, like the drums of Great Britain 
abroad ;* 
And grind, grind, grind, like the car of the Jagger- 
naut god : 
It was oh to be a slave to the flights of a tea-taster's 
dream, 
"When you welcomed him like an inspired one, to teach 
you to roll and to steam. 
Fire, fire, fire, when the cock is crowing aloof ; 
And fire, fire, fire, while the sun is hot on the roof : 
Dust, and pekoe and broken, and broken, and pekoe 
and dust : 
Roasting at once with a double fire the tea and the 
man to a crust. 
Roll, roll, roll, while the owls are hootiDg aloof ; 
And roll, roll, roll, till the devil-bird is heard on 
the roof ; 
Roll, roll, roll, your souchong to pekoe, to dust ; 
But roll, roll, roll, since the broker he says that 
you must. 
So 't is souchong and pekoe for ever and rolling and 
thudding till morn ; 
Like the strife of the surge to all time, till the blast 
of the last muster horn — 
With features weary and worn, with eye-lids heavy 
and red, 
A planter stood in his "planter's boots " eyeing his 
roller-shed ; 
Roll ;— roll ; — roll ; — faintly, with tottering step, 
He sang the song of the roller-shed, and expired, with 
— " commend me to Gepp 1" 
♦ 
THE GOVERNMENT GARDENS AT 
SAHARANPORE, INDIA. 
The report on the progress and condition of the 
above gardens during the past official year, by the 
Superintendent, Mr. Gollau, is a very interesting 
lecord. 'I'hese gardens are upwards of seventy years 
old; they are 3,000 foet in length by 2,000 feet in 
breadth. The receipts realized during the period 
under review from all sources were R14,919, being 
1:2, Hi) above the estimate and R 1,236 above that 
of the previous year. In addition to the above, 
Bet-da and plants to the value of R4,201 was issued 
gratis, or at reduced rates, to soldiers' and public 
» Unceasing; reference to the sun never setting on 
er dominions which girdle the earth, &c, &c. 
gardens. There has also been a saving to government 
of R2,315 made by the cultivation and manufacture 
of drugs for the medical Department. The total 
receipts, direct and indirect amounts to R21,435, 
against an expenditure of R19.327. There was 
more than average rainfall during the season, but 
irregular in its distribution. The total fall was 
43 06 inches, being 9 24 inches more than the previous 
year, and 1197 above the average of the ten jears 
immediately preceding. Tbe forest crop taken as a 
whole was below the average. The mango fly com- 
mitted great damage. This insect is found upon 
the trees during summer, and lives upon the juice 
of the leaves, flowers, and joung tender shoots, but 
the full extent of the mischief is done when the 
trees are in blo-som by injuring the reproductive 
organs of the flowers and thus interfereswith the 
setting of the fruit. Out of a paoket of seeds of 
the American Dewberry, which flourishes luxuriautiy 
in Florida, 117 plants were reared ; the fruit is 
described as being " delicious, " better than the be-t 
blackberry, and as large or larger. If it grows well 
in the N.-W. P., it will prove a useful addition to 
the varieties of upcountry fruit. In regard to date 
palm 101 offsets brought from the Persian guif were 
planted, five died and eight are sickly, and even if 
all the latter die the loss will be only thirteen per- 
cent. Dr. Bonavia, a great authority ou this subject, 
recommends that offsets should be planted at first 
in shady nurseries and transplanted to the open 
ground after they have made some growth. But 
these directions were not observed at Saharanpore. 
The plan there adopted was to plant them at once 
in the open, and as it proved successful, the Superin- 
tendent recommends it to be followed with all future 
importations. About three-fourths of the area of 
five acres reserved for date planting had bem taken 
up. The total number planted was 508, comprise 
40 distinct varieties. The seeds of the Elehe date 
palm procured from Spain being old and of bad 
quality were all failures. Loquats giown in the 
Government garden are said to be the finest, iu India, 
and as they thrive well no new varieties wtro 
introduced. The most noted variety iu the list of 
oranges is th« Sz-on-kom variety of China. Six 
plants were obtained from Hong-Kong and are making 
excellent progress. It is considered a deliciey in 
that country, and the finest of tbeni are sent as a 
tribute to the Emperor. Plantains have not been sj 
successful as was anticipated, the old plantations 
bore poor crops of fruit last season and now appear 
to be in need of reformation. The soil and tbe 
climate of the North are inimical to its growth.* 
The Burmese method of growing plantains was 
adopted but did not prove a success ; the report 
says, the " advantage claimed for this method was 
that plantains could be grown in the same • ground 
for unlimited periods of time without the aid of 
manure other than by burying all the stems which 
fruited from time to time in the opeu spaces of 
the plantation, and planting the young plants iu 
the vegetable mould thus formed." It was even 
asserted that a plantation systematically treated in 
this manner for forty or fifty years would find the 
soil richer at the end of the periods named than 
before the plantation was made. This however has 
not proved to be anything near the truth 
" The plantatiou treated as above described is 
now only in its fourth year, but the soil seems quite 
exhausted and does not seem capable of rearing a 
single plant up to a fruit bearing stage. " A collection 
of 23 vnrieties of English vines made good and 
healthy growth during the past summer, and nearly 
every plant is bearing a few bunches of fruit, the 
tuberous rootod Cochin China vine has not Leeu 
thriving. Those kept in a heated structure passed 
safely tlirough the winter, but those in the open 
were destroyed by the frost, in the matter of vege- 
tables six kinds of potatoes were grown, but the 
outturn was much below the average owing to the 
frost which proved disastrous throughout the district. 
* We should think so, in 30° N. L. — Ed. 
