July i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
J 45 
when it can be afforded, with nvmiire, the disease 
will be stamped ont finally, and that prosperity will 
reign again among the hard-working and much-endur- 
ing planters of Ceylon. The farmers of my neighbour- 
hood are beginning to grumble at the want of .rain. The 
ground is fearfully dry, and cattle and sheep arc starving 
for want of grass. There has been a good lambing 
season, but the poor mother? can scarcely afford the 
little things sufficient nourishment owing to their 
emaciated condition. Hay will be at any price I expect, 
unless we have 24 hours of a good down pour almost 
immediately. There is a grand promise of fruit, but 
rain is wanted to fill it out. Should the farmers have 
another bad year, it will he a terrible thing for the 
country. I am a landed proprietor to a small extent, 
and am beginning to have dismal forebodings as to 
Mi haelmas rent. One of my tenauts, whose leas, of 
21 years will expire next Michaelmas and who has 
hitherto paid £240 a year, has given notice that he 
cannot continue the tenancy, unless I reduce the rent to 
£150, and then he will only continue as a yearly tenant, 
The land he occupies is in one of the most fertile parts 
of K-nt. This will give you some idea of the state of 
agriculture in England at the present moment. — Yours 
truly, AN OLD COLOMBO MERCHANT. 
Tin Tea Boxes.— We have received from Messrs. 
John Walker & Co. a sample of the tin tea box 
so strongly recommended by Col. Money, and which 
we have no doubt will be largely adopted by Ceylon 
tea planters. 
Kalutara Tka.— We have been agreeably surprised 
at the quality of three sumples of tea, supplied 
to us by the Manager of Cullodeu Estate, Kalutara 
district, from the first considerable quantity manu- 
factured by him. Mr. Davidson deserves great credit 
for the preparation which, so far as we can judge, 
is very satisfactory. But our surprise arises from 
the very agreeable "flavour of tea grown in a district com- 
paratively only a few feet above sea-level. We should 
judge that th • liquor of the Kalutara tea will not be as 
etrong as that of leaf grown higher up. more especially 
in Ambagamuwa. But it is evident now that Ceylon can 
produce a tea of a superior marketable quality fro.n 
sea-level up to G.000 feet elevation. 
Public Sale of Cinchona Bakk.— Messrs. Robin- 
sou & Dunlop put up for public .sale to-day at their 
offices, Baillie Street, the undermentioned lots of 
suecirubra cinchona bark. The bark was from trees 
7 and S years old, grown on the Devenellekellc Estate' 
Walaha Valley, Lindula, average elevation 4 ->00 t'eet' 
Average of five analyses by Mess - Cochran Dixon' 
Powell Jones and Symons of the stem quills shewed 
2-52 yield sulphate 'of quinine. Analysis by Mr. M 
Cochran of the mossed bark shewed 2 91 yield sulphate 
of quinine: 
Sold for- 
Lot 1.-1,07.1 lb. stem quills Kl-75 
Lot 2 -2 5 1 ■. Mem pieces .' Ri-m 
Lot 3 -6i0 lb. branch bark "67J(! 
Lot, l.— 300 lb. root nieces and Oust .'.'. Rrao 
Lot 6.— ;05 lb. largo root pice s HI -US 
Lot (1.-200 lb. moss d Htem .pulls Rl 8 5 
Next came bark from trees, 4 and 5 years old, 
(frown on the Enroll Estate, Dikoya. Average cleva- 
liou 4,200 feet. Average of two analyses bv Messrs. 
Dixon and Symons, of tin- shavings from ."> 'years old 
trees shewed 2 77 yield sulphate of quinine. Ana- 
lysis by Mr. Symons of the shavings from 4 years trees 
Brewed 2 32 yield sulphate of quinine. 
Lot 1.-1,171 lb. shavings r.nm 3 years old trees ..Rl'BO 
Lot 2. -2:< 1 lb. »lia»iii|i.H iVoin » yea.-.- old trees. 1 ... ,. 
Lot 8.— 11 lb. Mem bnrk. j-Sl l, 
There was an atteudancc of over 20 mercantile gen- 
tlemen, and the biddiug was fai ly spirited, the Ger- 
man turns buying most of the bark. 
37 
ARTIFICIAL DRYING OF COFFEE. 
The following is a translation of the report on the 
Van Maanen process by the Commission appointed 
bv the Commercial Associalion at Sainarau" : — 
'"We the undersigned, having assembled .as a com- 
mission at the request of Mr. P. J. van Maanen and 
of the Commercial Association of Smiarang, to be 
present at a trial of the process discovered 
by the af or. mentioned gentleman for the artificial 
drying of coffee, and to give an opinion on it, have 
much pleasure in reporting as follows The diying 
apparatus on the estate belonging to Messrs. J. and 
A. M. Engelken situated in the Soeracarta residency 
on account of its great simplicity costs exceedingly 
little to set up. The experiment was made with a 
quantity of coffee of the same quality as about 36 picols 
dry and prepared which had previously lain for a 
day on the drying grounds ; the process in the 
apparatus lasted 22 hours, after which the coffee ap- 
peared to be completely dry and ready to be stored 
away. The operation requires little oversight, is ex- 
ceedingly simple, and cheap only abou". 5i cubic 
ells (more or less) of fuel (jungle wood of 
different sorts) being required for the drying of the 
above amount Although we readily state that the 
drying takes glace very uniformly, and that the coffee 
was exposed neither to exceptional heat nor to pre- 
judicial damp, we must reserve our judgment especially 
on I he question of the influence which the artificial 
drying may exercise on the taste and colour of the 
coffee, as it can only be ascertained on arrival in Europe 
fi the quality has suffered or not. In order to settle 
this point Messrs. Engelken iivt-nd to send a batch 
of coffee to the Netherlands, treated in the following 
manner : — 
25 picols dried in the ordinary way on built grounds. 
25 picols dried first artificially and then further in 
the usual way. 
25 picols dried first on the grounds and then tho- 
roughly by the artificial process. 
25 picols dried entirely artificially. 
This batch, shipped to the Netherlands and brought 
into the market simultaneously, will enable brokers to 
pronounce a decided opinion on the influence of the 
process of Mr. van Maanen on the colour and flavour 
of the coffee, and the final judgment on the utility 
of this method must depend upon this. If the result 
of this experiment should appear to be successful we 
do not hesitate to recommend strongly this process 
for all coffee estates and especially for those which 
on account of their elevation experience constant 
difficulties with the ordinary manner of drying Al- 
though all the advantages enumerated bv Mr. van 
Maanen in his pamphlet should not be realiz d (for 
instance the expense in tome cases Mill probably be 
higher than fixed by him though even then far below 
that of the present system of drying or what a 
Quardiola apparatus costs* there can be no doubt that 
the van Maanen process has great advantages, which 
will very speedily rec mp the cost of settiug up as 
well as of purchase. Iu conclusion we may nicuiiou that 
the experiment was seen by Mr. D." Pies, Chief 
Inspector of the Government Coffee Culture, who showed 
himself greatly impressed with the drying ap laratus 
of Mr. van Maanen.— Samarang, May 1881. — Fi J. 
Kno>ps, K. van Cessel, A. Fauer, J. H. Dczeiitje.'' 
INDIAN Wiikat.— -We have received from the Indian 
Government a " Supplemental Report on ludiaa 
Wheat," by Dr. M. C. Cooke. It appear? that in 
his report of ls7!» Dr. Forbes Watson remarked on 
the weevilly condition of the samples of Punjab wheal 
received by him. and consequently a second ser.es ot 
samples was sent, and this report gives a very satis, 
factory statements of the quality of the wheat, th< 
beat being valued at 50 li to 51 .and said to I. " van 
finest, like Oregon." 
