446 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1889. 
flavour ; they will look after themselves. 3rd, if 
Mr. Gray and all others interested in tobacco in 
Ceylrn will only continue to secure a leathery texture, 
we here will have nothing to fear from Ceylon 
competition ; our great desideratum is to secure 
as fine and silky a leaf as it is possible to get; 
but' Mr. Gray, having solved the problem, doubtless 
knows what he is writing about. 
"Peppercorn," in his jocular manner, puts a 
question from the young tobacco planter to the 
older about the number of colours; for tbe in- 
formation of the would be T- P.'s I will tell them. 
There are only four principal colours, viz., dark 
brown, vaal (Dutch), nearly equivalent to 
our fawn colour, and yellow ; but there are, of 
course, many shades, and it requires a practised 
eye to tell what particular colour the leaf should 
be assorted to. 
It is one of the greatest difficulties we have to 
deal with, the sorting of the tobacco, and I am 
sorry to say, with all our practice and experience 
we are still far from being perfect ; not that the 
manager or his assistants do not know what to 
do, but the difficulty is to get the coolies to do it, 
and when you come to think that on an estate pro- 
ducing, say 1,000 piculs, 25 millions or more of 
leaves have to be assorted, each to its particular 
kind, and on most estates 17 or more different kinds 
are sorted, you can conceive the very great difficulty 
there is in getting the work anything like properly 
done. 
In writing you the above, I simply do so with the 
wish to bring before those, who may think of in- 
vesting in tobacco, that there are many, many 
difficulties to contend with in the preparation of the 
leaf, and that those difficulties can only be got over 
by actual downright hard experience, and not by 
reading manuals or essays, be they ever so cleverly 
written. 
In the course of my experience in the East, now 
upwards of 20 years, I have seen most tropical cul- 
tures, and I can safely say, that there are none, that 
requires so much careful study and attention for 
some years as the preparation of tobacco. The 
mere growing of the tobacco is nothing, as it is more 
or less mechanical work. 
I am sorry to see Fritz Meyer's experiment in 
Kurunegala has failed through drought ; better luck 
next time. Crops here are short, as a rule, this year 
we trust to prices keeping up. Last year's crop, 
so far, has not always realized satisfactory prices, 
the Amsterdam market showing a decline of about 
25 % in the previous year's prices ; still some favorite 
marks have realized splendid prices. A. F. 
« 
Coca Leaves. — The advertising columns of 
our daily issue show that there is a chance for 
any planter who has been cultivating the Eryth- 
roxylon Coca of finding a market in Colombo for 
his leaves. The object is to extract cocaine. 
A Pineapple Monstrosity has been sent to us 
by Messrs. Volkart Brothers with the following 
note: — "A native gentleman, Mr. F. Fernando, of 
Kollupitiya, brought us this morning the monster 
pine herewith. We do not know whether it is 
anything very extraordinary, as we often saw several 
pinps growing on one stem, although probably nevor 
any with 10 to 11 fruits as this one. It was grown 
in Mr. F. Fernando's garden, about 8 miles from 
Colombo." The monstrosity weighs 31 lb., and is 
21 inches in length, 31 inches in breadth, and has 
a circumference of 73 inches. We noticed a similar 
abnormal growth some time ago, but this one is a 
good deui .rgor. Of course it ia quite uneatable. 
The Rumour as to the forthcoming Tea Trust, to 
which we referred last week, is exciting much curio- 
sity. The names of those connected with the project 
are not made public for the present, but should it be 
in the hands of men likely to inspire confidence, the 
Trust should be a success. There is plenty of room 
for an undertaking of the kind. — H. & C. Mail. 
The Punac Trade with the Straus Settle- 
ments. — A very brisk trade is being carried on 
between Pondicherry and Penang in earth-nut ponac. 
The steamers "Roma" and " Menatchy," bound 
for that port, shipped upwards of 9 000 bags, or 
nearly 700 tons, during the last fortnight. The 
price at present ia R8-80 per candy of 529 lb. 
English, Two years ago the value was but a little 
more than one-half that amount — M. Mail. 
A New Ceylon Tea Estates Co. — We call 
attention to the remarks given in last Overland 
Summary in reference to the New Dikoya Tea 
Estates Company for which Mr. H. L. Forbes is 
advertising for a Manager. The name of the new 
Company has not yet been fixed. The estates in- 
cluded will be : Invery, Waterloo and Strathdon 
in Dikoya district, Mincing Lane in Maskeliya, 
and Abergeldie aod Benachie in Lower Dikoya, com- 
prising a total of 1,526 acres with 1,426 acres in 
cultivation almost entirely tea and most of it just 
coming into bearing. 
A New Perfume Process. — A firm of manufact- 
urers at Leipsic, who are known as distillers of 
essential oils on rather a large scale, are reported 
to have discovered a process for extracting and preserv- 
ing the musk perfume from the ambretta or musk 
seed. It is said that should this process really prove 
to be practically useful, the consumption of amrebtta 
seed would probably increase very largely. It is now 
estimated at about 25.000 lbs. weight a year over the 
whole world. It is not a little curious that just as 
this news reaches ns, we learn that most of the Java 
cultivators have ceased to grow the plant which fields 
this now-to-be-famous musk se«.l. Some time ago it 
was stated that fourpence a pound, which is all they 
can get for it, does not cover more than one-thir.! of 
their expenses. Whether the ambretta cultivation 
revive or not in Java, we trust we shall hear some 
day that the new process has proved to be successful. 
— Burgoyne, Bwrbridges tfc.'s Price Current. 
Dried Plants for Essential Oils. — At a meeting 
of the New York Pharmaceutical Association held not 
very long ago, Mr. Albert M. Todd read a paper on 
the treatment and distillation of peppermint plants. 
He was particularly desirous of discovering whether 
the drying of the plant (drying by legitimate means, 
of course) had any influence on the yield of essential 
oil. After a great number of laborious investigations 
which it is not necessary to dilate upon in this place, 
the author finally arrived at the following conclu- 
sions: — 1st. In peppermint and other plants yielding 
essential oils no perceptible loss of essence is occas- 
ioned by drying in the open air at ordinary temper- 
atures. 2nd. When the drying of the plants is continued 
through many months, a slight oxidation of the oil in 
the leaf occurs, decreasing its solubility and increasing 
its specific gravity ; this resinification also raises its 
boiling poiDt, for the resin formed is non-volatile 
and insoluble. 3rd. A long exposure of the plants 
to atmospheric action prior to distillation does not 
affect the crystallising tendency of the essential oil of 
peppermint, nor any other of its physical properties, 
as far as the author has investigated them. 4th. To 
obtain the best results the plants should be dried 
thoroughly, and distillation should take place as soon 
as possible afterwards. With regard to the la iter 
conclusion, we should add that 2000 lbs. of dried 
plants yielded 20 lbs. of oil in thirty minutes, and a 
similar charge of fresh plants yi !ded on'- 2 lbs. of 
oil in an hour. The plant loses about half its weight 
(49 - 4 per cent) on drying by exposure to the sun iu 
the open air. This loss of weight is entirely moisture. 
— Biirgnyne, Burbridges #c t 's Price Current, 
