48o 
THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1889. 
appeared in the "Ceylon Advertiser" for April.* 
The Colonial tobaccos competing for the prize had 
to be in a London bonded warehouse by the 
1st December, but from inquiries I made before 
leaving London, I do not think a single Ceylon 
grower sent home a sample.— Yours faithfully, 
W. H. DAVIES. 
" POOOHIES " ON TEA. 
Park, Lunugala, Dec. 14tb. 
Deah Sir, — I send you by today's post in matchbox 
some specimens of caterpillars which have attacked 
my tea bushes. They start on a bush and eat every 
leaf off until they leave it so many bare sticks, and 
then they go to the next bush. Can you tell me what 
they are, or suggest any way of exterminating them p — 
I am, yours faithfully, B. FFANSHAWE. 
[Mr. A. P. Green reports : — " Larva of a small 
moth, which I am unable to identify at pre- 
sent, the caterpillars having passed into the chrysalis 
state." As for prevention, we repeat as follows: — 
Where numerous, and causing much injury to the 
trees, the caterpillars may be collected by hand and 
destroyed. For caterpillar attacks on fruit trees in 
England, Miss Ormerod (' Manual of Injurious Insects 
and Methods of Prevention ') advises good drenches 
of soft soap and fish-oil, or soft soap aDd sulphur 
thrown powerfully at the foliage. Although remedies 
of the above nature might be found to have an un- 
pleasant effect on the tea leaves, caterpillars are very 
susceptible to injury from wet and cold in their young 
state and when changing their skins ; and strong 
syringing with cold water where at hand might be tried 
with good effect if done in the early morniDg. Cater- 
pillars being generally night- feeders, soft soap could 
be used in the evening, to be washed off by a good 
drenching with pure water the following morning. Ex- 
cept where the boughs touch, the caterpillars can only 
travel to another tree by crawling up the trunk, and 
where the attack is severe, the surrounding trees might 
be protected by placing rings of some deterrent at the 
lowest part of the trunk, or on the ground round about 
it. A thick band of hay or straw, soaked in a mixture 
of tar and oil, that would keep wet and sticky for 
some time, would effectually prevent the caterpillars 
crossing it. If the attack is confined to a limited area, 
surrounding the whole with sand or ashes well sprinkled 
with paraffin and water would check their further pro- 
gress. (See Ormerod, ' Injurious Insects,' &c." — Ed. 
CEYLON TEA IN ENGLAND. 
Wattegama, 17th Dec. 1888. 
Dear Sir, — I wish to call your attention to the 
harm that is beiug done to the tea industry by the 
shipment and sale in London of the lowest qualities 
*The London Chamber of Commerce are offering a 
price of fifty guineas for the best specimen of Co- 
lonial grown tobacco. The sample must weigh 400 lb, 
embrace an average of the growtb. and not consist 
alone of leaf picked from a larger quantity than that 
which is submitted to the jurors. It is neverthe- 
less desirable that the leaf should be assorted in the 
usual way, into sizes or colours, separately packed, 
each sort being left in its natural proportion to the 
bulk. The Colonial specimens must be in any Lon- 
don bonded warehouse on or before the 1st Decem- 
ber next, so that they should be shipped from Co- 
lombo nwt later than the middle of October. We do 
hope Messrs. Ingleton, Vollar and others will send 
in samples for competition. If they do not obtain the 
prize, they will at any rate be advertising Ceylon 
as a tobacco producing country, and at same time be 
obtaining some valuable experience as to the exact 
requirements of the London trade. We need hardly 
say we shall he glad to take charge of any exhibits, 
personally look after them, and obtain all the in- 
formation we can regarding preparation, etc. We 
have now procured a supply of tho conditions and ne- 
cessary forma to bo signed and sent home by intend- 
ing exhibitors. They can be obtained on applica- 
tion »t our Colombo office. 
of our leaf. These teas are entirely bought for the 
packet trade and sold to the public as pure Ceylon 
teas. Now that we have a certain amount of pro- 
tection, I trust, under the Merchandize Marks Act, 
it is simply suicidal to continue shipping rubbishy 
teas. The price of the lowest qualities is at present 
remarkably high compared with the better qualities. 
This is entirely due to the competition of the packet 
trade. I saw and tested many samples in England 
of stuff that could only by courtesy be called tea, all 
of which Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton assured 
me went into packets. The harm done by this to 
the good name of Ceylon is very great, and although 
I 'm aware of the probable impossibility of stopping 
the shipment of such teas, I think you should direot 
the public attention to the matter. — Yours faithfully, 
BERNARD NELSON. 
An Oil Tree in Dry Regions.— Mr. Joseph 
Thomson in his paper before the Royal Geographi- 
cal Society, Nov. 26th on " A Journey to the Atlas 
Mountains " made the following reference to a tree 
like our own palmyra that is independent of irri- 
gation : — With their arrival at Tensift commenced 
the area of Argan forest, that peculiar and useful 
oil tree which found sustenance where the more 
water-loving olive could not live. 
Vanilla Geowers' Troubles. — A correspondence 
is now proceeding in the Mauritian journals on the 
serious depredations to which the vanilla plantations on 
the island are exposed. The fruit-bearing plants, when 
the pods begin to ripen, are torn off in hundreds by 
midnight marauders, who recommence their robberies 
every season, and pursue tbem apparently unchecked. 
The theft have increased to such an extent this year 
that the planters protest that they will have to give 
up the growing of vanilla and turn their attention to 
crops less liable to theft unless stringent measures are 
taken to stop the nuisance; for not only do tbey lose a 
proportion of their crop so large as to nearly equal tbeir 
margin of profit, but the thieves, wbo have to cure the 
stolen fruit hurriedly and secretly, are spoiling the 
reputation of the Mauritian vanilla by throwing quanti- 
ties of ill-cured and imperfectly ripened beans upon tbe 
markets. The planters suggest that the Government 
should prohibit the transport of vanilla beans by night 
or without a pass, and they 6ay that in the neighbouring 
island of Bourbon, where a similar measure was adpoted, 
the thefts have almost entirely ceased. — Chemist 
and Druggist 1 
Cotton Mills in Bombay.— We attract atten- 
tion to the readable and apparently exhaus- 
tive review of the Cotton Mill industry in Bombay 
afforded on page 467 from a correspondent 
of the Bombay Gazette who is evidently well 
up in his subject. He gives elaborate tables of the 
results of the working of the mills under English, 
Parsee and Hindu management, all of which we 
reproduce in full. We need only here repeat a 
sentence from his summing-up, to the effect that 
on a total outlay of capital of R31, 500,000 the 
cotton industry in Bombay has made a gross return 
of R5, 800, 000 or over 18 per cent, and the writer 
well contrasts this with Scottish investments to 
the extent of 12 millions sterling in America and 
the European Continent which had not, when re- 
ported three years ago, yielded a cent of profit for many 
years! How is it that such capitalists do not 
come forward to supply the capital of the first 
Cotton Mill in Ceylon (raised mainly through local 
agency), or of the several Tea Companies which 
might so advantageously be formed by putting to- 
gether from six to a dozen of existing tea planta- 
tions, here and there, all over our planting country ? 
Lot those interested send today's and yesterday's 
copy of the Observer home to both Scottish and 
| English capitalists ' 
