So8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [February i, 1889. 
NORTH BORNEO NEWS. 
(From the British North Borneo Herald, Dec. 1st.) 
We understand Messrs. E. E. Abrahamson & Co. 
have been granted conditionally two lots of 5,000 
acres of land in the vicinity of the Padas River, West 
Coast District. 
The Court of Directors have purchased 3 bales of 
the Ranow Tobacco Crop to compete for the £50 
prize offered by the London Chamber of Commerce, 
in December next. 
The Consumption of Wood for Railway Sleepers. 
— The Moniteur Industrie! states that the six principal 
railway companies of Prance use more than 10,000 
sleepers per day, or 3,650,000 per annum. As a tree 
of the usual dimensions will give only ten sleepers, 
the railways in question require 1,000 trees per day 
for sleepers alone. In the United States the consump- 
tion is much greater, amounting to about 15,000,000 
sleepers a year, which is equivalent to the destruc- 
tion of about 170,000 acres of forest. The annnal 
consumption of sleepers by the railways of the world 
is estimated at 40,000,000 and this is probably less than 
the actual number. From these figures the rapid 
progess of disafforestation will be understood, and that 
it is certain that the natural growth cannot keep 
pace with it. Htince we have had during the last 
quarter of a century frequent inundations and changes 
in atmospheric conditions. These and other considera- 
tions tend to the ultimate employment of metal for 
sleepers in place of wood. 
The East Borneo Company is not letting grass grow 
under its feet, jungle has been cleared anil sheds 
erected as if by magic and 100 coolies recently ob- 
tained on comparatively small advances from the West 
Coast near Gaya. These men are we hear giving 
every satisfaction and we think other planters might 
follow Mr. Abrabamson's example with advantage 
thereby avoiding the heavy advances paid to Chinese 
and Javanese, and all risk of loss from desertions. 
Coffee planting is in active progress on the Tra- 
ding and Planting Oo.'s Segaliud estate. The samples 
of tobacco produced there are of very good quality, 
and judging from the fiue quality of the fruit of some 
trees found in the jungle, cocoa is likely to do well. 
Mr. M. Ohallinor arrived at Sandakan in the S. S. 
" Mercury " on the 22nd ultimo to take up his ap- 
pointment as Assistant Surveyor in the Land Depart- 
ment. We note from the Cevlon Observer that he has 
been a resident in Ceylon for the last sixteen years, 
and the Editor expresses a hope that good health, 
success and fortune may follow his footsteps here, 
in -which we heartily join, 
We have been favoured with a copy of Ferguson's 
Ceylon Handbook and Directory for 1887-8, which fully 
sustains the, reputation secured for its predecessors. 
His Excellency Sir Arthur Gordon, Governor of 
Ceylon in writing to the compiler Mr. J. Ferguson 
states " I am fully aware of its interest and value and 
of the profit to be gained from a judicious examina- 
tion of the same. I doubt very much whether any 
Colony, exoept perhaps Victoria, where they take 
immense pains with their annual returns and statistics, 
has anything approaching it in completeness and 
accuracy," 
Mr. von Donop informs us that through the courtesy 
of the Fiji Government, he hopes shortly to have 
Fiji Cotton plants for distribution. 
Mr. F. R. Boultbee, m. i. m. e., Manager of the Bri- 
tish Borneo Trading Compnny has obtained letters 
Patent for a useful contrivance in connection with 
Circular Saw Benches, for cutting shingles shooks 
for tta boxes, packing cases, cigar boxes, Venetians, 
etc, etc. 
We hope to hear that shortly the Company are 
supplying the Ceylon Planters with boxes for packmg 
their tea in and local residents with shingles for 
their bungalow*. 
KUDAT NOTKS. 
Ai old residents and as pioneera of the tobacco enter- 
prise we heartily welcome the (Jount and Countess de 
"leioos d'Elaloo back amongst our small community 
here. 
The object of the intending emigrants is, we have 
reason to believe, to plant pepper, on the rich lands 
round Kudat harbour. 
Many of the estates are still cutting tobacco, a fact 
which surprises visitors accustomed to the earlier 
seasons in Deli. 
Mrs. Dominic Daly returned to Kudat in the Memnon 
on the 12th instant, much benefited by her sojourn 
on the coast. 
♦ 
CLEANING STEAM-ENGINE BOILERS. 
There are now so many steam engines employed on 
tea estates in Ceylon, that the following extract from 
"Chemical Engineering" in the Chemical Trade 
Journal will be interesting and useful : — 
Before I leave the subject of steam raising, it may 
be as well to insist on the necessity for cleanliness 
inside the boiler. The loss of heat taking place in 
some works through scale in boilers is simply in- 
credible. I have only just finished the analysis of a 
boiler scale sent me for examination which measured 
no less than 3§ inches in thickness, and which doubt- 
less could have been prevented by proper means. 
The subject is simple enough: water contains car- 
bonate and sulphate of lime, and very often salts of 
magnesia. The sulphate is held in simple solution, 
but the carbonate owes its solubility to an excess of 
carbonic acid present in the water. Upon heating 
this acid gas is expelled, and down falls the car- 
bonate of lime. If this be done quickly the car- 
bonate falls as a sludge to the bottom of the boiler, 
while if it is deposited slowly a scale is produced 
and is bound together by the sulphate of lime which 
falls simultaneously. There are many nostrums in 
the market for preventing and removing scale, but 
only two substances need be employed. The cheaper 
is caustic soda, pumped in with the feed water ; 
the other, tribasic phosphate of soda, which is 
especially useful where the degree of " perma- 
nent hardness " is excessive. Many manufaeturers 
have told me that they have tried caustic soda 
and not found it effective, but on careful inquiry, 
I have always found that far too little was em- 
ployed. If we suppose a boiler consuming 40 tons of 
fuel per week with an evaporation of 7'5 lb. of water 
(of 15 u " total hardness," of which 7° are " per- 
manent") per lb. of fuel, we can readily find how 
much caustic soda is required. The quantity of water 
per week for one boiler would be 300 tons or 67,200 
gallons, which at 8° of " temporary hardness " per 
gallon, would mean at least 77 lb. of 60 per cent, 
caustic soda per week to simply absorb the carbonic 
acid holding the carbonate of lime in solution, thus 
enabling it to drop quickly. 
The caustic soda thus introduced becomes converted 
into ciirbonate, which acts further upon the sulphate 
of lime, converting it into carbonate and becoming 
itself transformed into sulphate of soda. It will thus 
be seen that something more than the mere addition 
of anti-iucrustating agents is necessary. The sulphate 
of soda formed by the decomposition of the car- 
bonate remains in solution, and where soda crystals 
have been used without frequent blowing down, I 
have found as much as 500 grains per gallon of 
soluble matter in the boiler water. Then again, there 
is the carbonate of lime sludgy which must be sys- 
tematically removed, as in the case already cited, th« 
wet sludge will amount to at least i cwt. per week. 
Some have objected to the employment of 
caustic soda owing to the action it has upon 
brass fittings ; but this has arisen when a 
large quautity of caustic soda has been put into a boiler 
newly cleaned, and allowed to last say for three weeks 
or a month. Of course during the early stages of the new 
running the water is excessively alkaline, and the 
tendency to froth and prime and even to attack 
brasswork is very great. The only sensible way is 
to mix it with the feed water in due propmtion 
whereby the ciustic becomes carbonated at onoe ; hut 
it is a question whether the steam boiler should be 
made the receptacle for all the dirt and filto fiom 
the water ; I think not, for I am strongly of opinion 
that it would pay much better to effect the purifica- 
tion of the feed water before it eutered the boiler. 
