552 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February t, 1889. 
address and deliver packages or circulars, we can 
furnish vouchers for all moneys spent in carrying out 
the scheme. 
PeEsonal Letters. — A personal letter from the 
Association must be sent to each person who receives 
tea, and those would have to be sent to whoever acts 
as agents on this side to address and mail as required. 
This letter should state that (here the name of 
the person authorized should be stated) will call and 
have an interview with him on the subject of 
the Ceylon tea enterprize with the view to 
interest him in the matter, and if possible per- 
suade him to use his influence as a public man &c, &c. 
We may mention that it is not always the editors 
of newspapers who command the news columns, and 
that a luncheon well attended by reporters or repre- 
sentatives of newspapers is productive of good. Had 
we the money, we would think our time well and 
profitably spent in preparing a banquet for the 
reporters of. the press both in Philadelphia and in 
New York, but we can't afford it. We must now 
leave our ideas to be oriticism of those who read, 
and leave the Association to act in the matter as it 
thinks best. Before closing, we may say that inquirers 
for Ceylon tea have never yet been served with the 
Kootee blend, but always pure Ceylon tea. We pre- 
sume the last clause of the resolution means that 
the tea about to be distributed should be sent out 
as merely pure Ceylon tea and not as any particular 
brand of tea, but we would be glad if you could throw 
a little more light upon the signification of the clause 
to which we refer. We could not of course send out 
any tea under our brand until it became our pro- 
perty, or by the special authority of the Association. 
Let everybody be at rest concerning our actions 
in advancing the cause of Ceylon tea. We long for 
the day when we can afford to shut our doors on 
every other kind of tea. Meanwhile, although obliged 
to handle other teas, we are none the less energetic 
in striving to get people to use the pure article, and 
the fact that there is Dot one grocer of account in 
Philadelphia, who has not been obliged to call upon 
us for some Ceylon Kootie tea is significant, inas- 
much as it shows that our influence is felt here 
now, and that it only requires time, perseverance, 
and a little money to fan the spark into the living 
flames which will require all the efforts of China 
and Japan to extinguish.— Yours very truly, 
(Signed) J. M. Mubkay & Co, 
The Tobacco Company of British North Borneo, 
which we noticed in our last issue, has been 
registered by Hollams, Son, and Coward, with 
a capital of £100,000, in £5 shares. The 
object of this company is to acquire lands 
in British North Borneo, and the business of 
planting and curing and manufacturing tobacco 
and other produce now carried on by a firm or 
partnership known as the Darvel Bay Tobacco 
Company, on a portion of the land proposed to 
be acquired, and to develop and wcrk the said 
lands and business. The first subscribers are:— 
J. A. H. Drought, 2, Montagu-place, W., 1 share ; 
L. Fraser, 1, Whittington-avenue, e.g., 1 share ; 
E. Christie. 1, Whittington-avenue, e.c, 1 share ; 
A. Johnstone, 1, Whittington-avenue, e.c, 1 share ; 
j. c. Talsen, 41, Keighton road, Clapton, E , 1 
share; J. M. Way, 50, Turner-street, Barking, 
1, share ; J. Thompson, 2, Milford-terrace, Ashvill 
road, Leytonstone, E., 1 share. The first directors 
shall be Eugene Bunge, of Amsterdam; Frank 
Shaw, of Surbiton ; F. O. Davidson, 13, Ennismore- 
Gftrdens, s.w. ; E. Brown, Lancaster-gate, s.w. ; 
L. J. B. Gla3S, 1, Whittington-avenue, e.c. ; and 
J. A. H. Drought, 40, Old Broad-street, e.c Each 
director Khali hold at least £250 in the share 
capital of the company. The remuneration of the 
directors shall bo £150 per annum, and £300 
amongst thorn for every 5 per cont. dividend declared 
over 15 por cent por annum.— L. and O. Express, 
Dec. 28th. 
Cube foe White Gbtjb. — W. B. Al wood contributes 
to Insect life (i, pp. 48 50) the result of an interesting 
experiment in applying kerosene emulsion to turf as 
a remedy for white grubs (Allorhina nitida). A 
plant was treated with emulsion diluted 15 times. 
The grubs were killed in a most satisfactory manner, 
and the grass was not injured. Where larva; wore 
at first very abundant and destroying the sod, the 
emulsion application quickly ceased the injury. — Agri- 
cultural Science. 
Bice and Kurakkan — Mr. Borron and our 
readers generally are indebted to Dr. Loos for 
the long and interesting letter with which he 
favours us on the subject (see page 529) of the relative 
value of food grains. We cannot at all understand 
the statement made in another quarter as to parangi 
being prevalent (unless as the result of vice) in 
a seacoast district south of Bentota. The use of 
putrid fish and bad water cannot be a necessity 
to people in a seashore district. There is a case 
on record of the crew of an English vessel wrecked 
on an island in the South Pacific, subsisting for 
five or six months on coconuts, with fish 
occasionally, and flourishing and gaining weight 
on this diet. 
Davidson's Siroccos and Brown's Desic- 
cator. — A planter, whose opinion we asked 
respecting the new down-draught sirocco, re- 
plied as follows : — " I am rather prejudiced against 
siroccos, as their internal arrangements burn out 
so rapidly that they are a constant source of 
trouble and expense. Moreover, their first cost is 
extremely high, the new d6wn-draught one costing 
something over B2,000, — and, besides, they, as a 
rule, require a deal of firewood, which is a matter 
of some importance. Brown's desiocator is my 
favourite drier, as it is most simple and not so 
very expensive (R1.100), and it requires less fuel 
than any machine I know. I have seen several at 
work, and have never heard a single complaint 
about them." 
Women and Fboit-Growing.— In the course of 
his article in the Nineteenth Century on " The 
Fruit-Growing Revival," Mr. Morgan (the editor of 
the Horticultural Times) makes the following remarks 
on fruit-growing as a new field for women's industry : — 
" A woman is at home in a garden. The physical work 
connected with dressmaking, telegraphy, typewriting, 
and all the other departments of labour open to women 
is much heavier than is required for the bulk of horti- 
cultural operations. In growing flowers, for example, 
the minute care and attention necessary are by no 
means unfitedfor women, while in fruit-growing the 
same remark applies to a great extent. The healthf ulness 
of horticultural occupations is well known, and even work- 
ing in hothouses does not, with ordinary care, percept- 
ibly affect gardeners, who are notoriously long-lived 
men. There is absolutely no reason why the fruit- 
growing extension movement should not open up an 
avenue of employment for women ; and it is signficant 
that among the applications for admission to the . 
Horticultural College at Swanley were several ladies, 
" In America there are, according to the statement 
of a Chicago florists' paper, over 62,000 women engaged 
in the cultivation of fruit, while some of the 
most successful 'orchardists of California are of the 
same sex. From my own observation I find that women 
are more successful in fruit-growing than men ; they 
have more of the ' divine quality of patience,' as 
Jeremy Taylor puts it. The most successful fruit-grow- 
er I am acquainted with is the wife of a friend ; 
while yet again in bottling and preserving surplus 
fruit — an important branch of profitable horticulture 
— women are much more expert than our own sex. 
There is a great opening for the utilization of female 
labour in ' the art that doth mend Nature,' and I 
trust that we shall soon iee a training class in horti- 
culture attached to South Kensington and other 
educational centres.'— Pall Mall Budget. 
