8 4 4 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [June i, 1889. 
in London, the fault is more likely to be in the 
packing of the ohest than in the bulkiDg. 
[Does this correspondent, and all other planters 
puzzled in matters of bulking, sifting, cutting, 
packing, &c, consult the pages of the Tropical 
Agriculturist through the annual index to find 
hints at a moment's notice ? We are not aware of 
ever passing over a useful lesson or wrinkle for 
planters, of any kind, without giving it a place 
in the T. A. As we said before, every estate, and 
every estate agent's office should have a file of the 
T. A. and the time and writing this would save 
would pay the subscription ten times over. — Ed.] 
, 
FIVE DAYS' WITHEBING OP TEA LEAF. 
(Communicated.) 
We are oredibly informed that certain planters 
know how to deal with leaf to advantage when, 
after 48 hours on the tats, it commences the first 
stage of becoming, if neglected further, a stinking 
rotten mass of, if not quite putrefactive, still leaf 
that should be sent down the stream rather than 
sent to the London market to work only discredit 
to Ceylon tea generally. Will those who know 
how to arrest the decay of leaf after the period 
mentioned give their knowledge to their brother 
planters ? To do so would, of course, be to the 
general weal of Ceylon. Also their ideas with re- 
gard to availing of the sun for withering which, 
it is said, sets up a damaging chemical aotion. Surely 
the chimneys of siroccos properly protected can 
safely be run up through the factory wither- 
ing lofts in place of outside the factory, and with- 
out increasing the fish of fire. On this point, too 
we should like to have experienced planters' ideas. 
Tea left on the tat for five days owing to bad 
withering weather must, of course, have become 
very much decomposed, perceptible even to those 
whose olfactory nerves are not of the keenest. As 
brewers send their bad beer down the gutters so 
should Ceylon planters their bad tea. 
ESTATE BULKING OF TEA. 
(By F F. Street.) 
Proper " Bulking " is so essential both for Teas 
sold locally and those shipped home on estate 
account, that a description of a cheap and effectual mode 
of bulking m*y be of service to your planting readers, 
especially as the material is within the reach of all. 
Four square wooden posts grooved on two of the 
adjoining sides and several planks of say 18 inches 
in breadth are all that are required. 
These should be made into a pit or large box, the 
posts forming the corners and the planks the sides. 
The pit should be built raised some 4 feet from the 
ground, the bottom inclining slightly towards the 
centre being made of wood, and having a sliding trap-door 
in the centre, so made that the outlet can be en- 
larged or reduced according to the size of the 
leaf to be bulked. Wh*>n the pit is being filled with 
Tea the trap-door remaining closed. 
The Tea to be bulked should he spread out in layers 
as thin as possible : one quality on top of another until 
all the Tea required to be bulked is inside the pit. Now 
open the trap-door and the Tea will run out from the 
top through the different layers of Tea, and out at 
the trap-door at the bottom taking a little from 
each layer on its downward course— the result being 
a perfect hdk. By means of a ziuc tube the current 
of Tea leaf can be carried direct from the pit into 
the packages standing on a lever-scale, though perhaps 
the Tea would get still more mixed if allowed to 
fall a small distance on to the floor forming a cone- 
shaped pile of Tea, the packages being filled from 
the foot of the pile with a wooden or metal spade- The 
packages might be put all round the pile at a slight 
distance from it, a little Tea being plnced in each in 
order as they stand and filled gradually: this would 
ensure an equal proportion of dust and broken leaf to 
each pacakge and render unevenness impossible. 
A sand-glass will illustrate the principle of this mode 
of bulking. Watch the sand as it is running out, and you 
will find it is the top layer that runs and not the bot- 
tom near the exit. 
* i 
Tea in Japan. — The Japan Weekly Mail of 
April 13th says : — " Small quantities of Teas have 
been made to order, but no new leaf has yet beea ' 
fired. The temperature in the Tea districts has 
been rather lower than usual, but this has only 
checked growth somewhat, no damage being r - 
ported from any quarter, and no anxiety is felt 
for the young leaf. A tencatty muster has been 
shown. Next week trustworthy information should 
be forthcoming." 
Coffee Under Shade. — A correspondent writes : — ■ 
"It is very amusing to see the leading Boss of a 
show replying to the letters of a ' correspondent ' 
and denying that orders have been given to 
plant coffee again under shade in Dikoy;i. 
Planting coffee under shade or allowing a sucker 
to grow on each stump, is a distinction without 
a difference. Tt is well-known that seeds of the 
fig tree have been sent from an estate near Kandy 
to those upcountry estates for growing shade trees. 
This of itself is utterly absurd— to send a low- 
country tree to be grown upcountry for purpose 
of shade. What next 1" 
Artificial Coffee. — According to A. Stutzer, in 
the ZeitscforiftfiiT angewandte Cltemie, the manu- 
facture of artificial coffee from burnt flour or me, J 
is carried on by certain firms in Cologne. The 
artificial beans are made m specially devised 
machines, and resemble closely in appearance the 
natural ones. They have been examined by O. 
Beitmair, who has shown that they consist of 34-t; 
per cent, of extract soluble in water, mixed with 
56 - 25 per cent, of insoluble organic constituent: . 
The amount of ash on ignition is small, amounting 
to I'M) per cent. They can be readily distinguished 
from the natural beans by their property of sink- 
ing when immersed in ether, as genuine coffee 
beans float on that liquid. Strong oxidis- 
ing agents do no decolourise the artificial product 
so rapidly as natural coffee. — Industries, 
The Steam-plough in India. — In his paper on "the 
Mahratta plough" in the Asiatic Quarterly Sir 
George Birdwood made merry over the notion that 
steam-ploughs could ever be introduced with success 
in India, giving a comic description of a scene in 
Khandesh, where the attempt resulted in the 
plough sticking fast after a few futile snorts and 
being thereafter laid aside for good, to be presently 
transformed into an object of worship by the ignorant 
natives. Having some doubt about the general ap- 
plicability of such a description, we forwarded Sir 
George's article to the manager of a large estate in 
the Dun on which the steam-plough was introduced 
last year, and received the following reply : — " As 
for the steam-plough the writer mentions, I consider 
it a creation of his own imagination. There was 
never a steam-plough made that corresponds to his 
graphic and ' funny' description, and I consider it 
wrong of him to endeavour to embellish an article by 
such an absurd imaginary sketch. No steam-plough 
goes ' snorting and hissing into work,' and then 
sinks into the furrow it has made. There is no such 
foolish implement constructed. I may tell you that 
the steam-plough is a great success here, and is doing 
capital work, rolling over the jungle lands in fine 
style, and we are rapidly clearing the lands." » 'learly 
they did not know everything down in the Judee of 
Sir George. — Pioneer. 
