THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [April i, 1889. 
674 
district is now Dikoya ! A wild voyage I took in 
1851 in the " Calder," brig of 220 tons, to New 
York with a sample of everything the island produced, 
— ship full on my own account. Ceylon coffee unknown 
there, ditto plumbago,* coir and coconut oil.espeeially 
citronella oil. It was thought a sort of ' Sindbad ' 
business, but mark you the exports from Ceylon 
to America now ? Cardamoms could not be got in 
Ceylon, wouldn't grow, only wild ones in Sabaraga- 
muwa, so I got some from the coast of India. Now ! 
what about Ceylon cardamoms ? Cinchona, it was 
said, would not grow in Ceylon ; wanted the Andes 
lava soil, &c. What about cinchona now ? Tombs 
writes a book. Tea won't grow in Ceylon ; wants 
Chinamen, &c. What about tea now ? I 
began to tar my barbacueB (about 1850) in 
Colombo. Want them to dry soon after rain. Get 
threatening letters from planters. " Will give tarry 
flavour to bean," &c. For a long time I used big 
wood wheel peelers pushed round by coolies. I think 
I will try steam, but suspicious planter says : "Motion 
too quick. Will break the beans and destroy bloom." 
There are many more I could give ; and now comes 
Mr. Barber tabooing tobacco. We want eveiyhelp 
the island can give us, and it is a fine island 
with exactly the climate suited for tobacco growing, 
and no one wants the reserve mountain forest to 
grow tobacco, but there are thousands of acres in 
the lowcountry and in the hands of planters along 
the lines of our railways (Uva would grow as good 
tobacco as Sumatra) which is fit for tobacco and 
need never go into tea (let us halt where we are with 
tea, or the price will be down to sixpence), and if 
the natives get encouragement as well as the Euro- 
pean planter, there should be as fine a tobacco 
business as anywhere. Granted that tobacco is 
an exhausting crop, yet it pays hand over fist, 
and with our railways and roads we should get 
plenty of bones and other manure such as they 
apply in America where a farmer has regular to- 
bacco fields in rotationf. 
Our great advantage is the climate, 3 to 7 north 
latitude is the very best for fine tobacco. 
The drawback in Ceylon is want of skilled 
curers and a complete tobacco factory where the 
tobacco planter — European or native — oan find a 
market for his leaf. 
I am now doing my best to inaugurate this. — I am, 
yours faithfully, THOMAS DICKSON. 
TEA BOX TIMBEB FBOM BUBMA : 
VABIETIES OF THE TEA PLANT, &c. 
Dear Sib, — I am sending you two boards, to 
show you what kind of timber the tea boxes are 
made from. You will see that the boards are the best 
red cedar wood and fine-grained with no aroma, 
at the same time a beautiful timber that can be 
brought up to a splendid polish, and I may inform 
you that the old boxes are much in request in 
London for the purpose of making of fancy boxes 
of ah sorts, also cigar boxes, and sell in London 
after being used as tea boxes for more than their 
original cost in Burma. Indian planters use Burma 
boxes for this reason, and besides tea shipped in 
these valuable timber boxes sells much higher in 
price, as the quality is known not to affect the 
tea in any way. Planters and merchants will under- 
stand what I mean. Will you, Mr. Editor, be so 
kind as show the sample of timber to anyone who 
* A mintake : Ceylon plumbago was known in the 
I'nitcd States long prior to 1851. Mr. Joseph Dixon, 
the founder of the Great American Crucible Company, 
obtained a shipment of Ceylon plumbago in 1820 — Ep. 
t If thin were enforced, it would obviate the objection 
which "tho Senior Editor" shares with Mr- Barber.— Ed, 
may wish to see the quality of timber, which speaks 
for itself and will recommend itself in the market. 
I had a splendid blossom out on my coffee, could 
not have been heavier, some trees bearing at the 
rate of one ton per acre. " Coffee Liberian " is to 
succeed well and no mistake with a little shade. Tea 
is in crop ; I want seed for planting up more land. 
(Tea is to thrive well in Burma.) Of course you know 
that Burma is the native home of the tea plant 
of three different varieties indigenous tea. The 
China tea on the borders of the Shan States 
near China proper and the eating tea is quite 
a different variety (Lee pet Chow). Lee Pet 
Chow is the wet tea or the eating tea and 
grows into a large tree with small seeds like 
mustard. The seeds are in or on the under sides 
of the leaf something like a fern bearing its seeds 
in a most peculiar fashion in nature, and the leaves 
are exaotly marked like the small China bush. 
And another curious thing is that the red ants are 
always to be found on the trees in great numbers. 
I fancy there must be some saccharine or a certain 
percentage of sugar thrown out of the tree. I 
have a fine tree in the vicinity of my bungalow, and 
several more up on the 'ridge of my Saba Bony 
hill. I may mention that the proper name of my 
place in Burmese is Shewie Chung, which means the 
golden river, and when the Shans owned Tavoy 
they employed themselves here in mining for gold. 
There are, sure enough, a great many old pits, 
some of them from 20 to over 30 feet deep, and 
I have counted more mines than one hundred 
in number. But gold. Oh ! Observer, I have not 
seen the colour of the precious metal. However, 
there must be something, or those Chinese Shans 
would not have taken the trouble to go to get 
much labour for nothing, that is certain, and I 
live in hopes some day when I get some mining 
experience on the ground to make a trial to bring 
the valuable metal to the light ; and if I am so 
fortunate, I shall retire and go home to Ireland 
and buy a farm. 
I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. David Sin- 
clair and Mrs: Sinclair here ; they came up 
to see me and took me by storm. I was much pleased 
to see them. I nearly run wild when I see any 
one from Aberdeen here. I was so proud to find 
that they took the trouble to look me up. Mrs. 
Sinclair is a very nice lady and cheerful and 
speaks her mind. She thought I resembled a 
Chinaman alone by myself. Of course it is rather 
lonely, and I wish some more planters would come 
and see Tavoy district and see for themselves what 
can be done in Burma. I had also a call from 
Mr. Fryer, the Financial Commissioner, and Mrs. 
Fryer. Mrs. Fryer takes a great interest in 
plants and knows a good deal about plants and 
also their botanical names, — a very nice lady 
indeed. I had also a call from Mr. Hall, the 
Director of Agriculture, and Mrs. Hall. Mr. Hall 
had just returned from Penang from the mining dis- 
tricts. He went down to get information about mining 
and mining labour, labour laivs, etc., and also 
brought specimens of tin and tin made from the 
indigenous tin and samples of all kinds of ore. 
He told 'me you sent him the T.A., and he said 
he read it with great interest. Mrs. Hall is very 
pretty with red cheeks and altogether a very hand- 
some lady. It does one good sometimes to see a 
lady: it brings back kind recollections of mother 
and sisters, aye and sweethearts left behind us. 
You will be thinking there 's a bee in my bonnet 
if I go on like this, so I shall say adieu for the 
present, — Yours most resisectfully, 
JAMES D. WATSON. 
[The specimens of limber sent are of fine " red 
cedar," the product of Cedrela toona, which i 
