174 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[August i, 1881 . 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION :— MANURING : 
Dikoya, June 23. 
Dear Sir, — I should be very much obliged if any 
of your readers can inform me from actual experience : — 
(1) Does applicition of cattle manure to cinchona 
euocirubra, materially increase the growth; (2) does 
it increase the value of the bark ; (3) i9 there 
anything to prevent the application to young plants 
Bay six months old. — I am, sir, yours faithfully, 
ALOK FIBRE. 
Kirimittia Estate, Kadugannawa, June 24th, 1881. 
Dear Sir, — As you are the person to whom people 
always have recourse for any information, 1 should be 
glad to know if idoe fibre, prepared in the same manner 
as the simple I send to you by post, and about five 
times that quantity, at the cost of one cent, would 
pay ; and also how long the aloe takes to attain full 
maturity. 
This beiiig my first attempt to extract fibre from 
aloe, I have no doubt that it could be improved in 
every way. — Yours faithfully, J. H^VVKE, 
[Five times the quantity would be about balfa-pound, 
or 2 cents per lb. : that is certainly net dear, 45 
rupees per ton ; but we suspect a very few tons would 
exhaust all the available aloes. Under favourable 
circumstances, we have no doubt, however, that the 
aloe plant would come very rapidly to maturity. 
Mr. Hawke has possibly not observed the extract 
we gave very recently with reference to the cultiva- 
tion of the American aloe. We quote as follows : — 
" It grows in almost any soil, and requires very little 
cure. It is supposed not to arrive at full maturity 
under one hundred years ; but this opinion is an error, 
as the age at which it arrives at maturity vanes, 
according to circumstances, from 10 to 50 or even 70 
years. When it has acquired its full growth, it pro- 
duces its gigantic flower stem and then perishes. The 
plant is useful in many ways. By making incisions 
in its stem a fermented liquor and favourite beverage 
called by the Mexicans 'Pulque' is obtained, from 
which again an agreeable ardent spirit called "Vino 
Mercal" is distilled. ' Pulque' is said to be a most 
wholesome drink, and remarkably agreeable when oae 
has overcome the first shock of its rancid odour ; it 
is said, moreover, to be an excellent application for 
gout and rheumatism The dried flowering stems 
are an almost impenetrable thatch ; an extract of the 
leaveB is made into balls which will lather water like 
soap ; the fresh leaves themselves, cut into slices, are 
occasionally given to cattle ; the centre of the flower- 
ing stem, split longitudinally, is by no means a bad 
substitute for a razor-strop, owing to minute particles 
of silica forming one of its constituents; but the mo- 1 
useful part of the plant is the leaf, the fibres of which 
form a coarse kind of thread, which are called in 
England "Pita Flax." The natives make very good 
common cordage or rope with these fibres. Some 
samples of the fibre were sent to the Agricultural and 
Horiicultural Society for "an opinion as to whether 
it could obtain any value as an article of commerce 
in the Indian or Home markets." Messrs. Cogswell 
and Robinson report on the samples as follows : — 
"With reference to the samples herewith alluded to 
in the foregoing memorandum, I beg to observe that 
the washed and heckled fibre prepared from the 
'Agave Americana' or common aloe, is about the 
best I have seen, being beautifully clean and well 
freed from the bark or outer skin of the plant, of 
good colour, there being but a very Blight tinge of 
greenish, which it is impossible to thoroughly eradic- 
ate without extra steeping, or the addition of chem- 
icals, to the injury of the fibre ; it is of very great 
length and strength, and a really good commercial 
commodity, its value to-day (November. 1S80) being about 
eight rupees a bazar rnaund R220 per ton. The sample 
unheckled I would value at about one rupee a rnaund 
less. Tha sample of combing-, generally known as 
tow, could be used in this country for ptper-making 
only, its value as such being about three rupees a 
rnaund; but in England, where spinning machinery 
can be applied to it, a good yarn might be produced. 
As a product of shipment thereto it is of greater 
value than being consumed locally for paper making; 
for the latter, I am of opinion, it is too good and 
costly as jute tow, and such like fibres, are so cheap 
and plentiful in this market."— Ed.] 
NEW PRODUCTS FOR THE HILLS: "NEW 
ZEALAND FLAX." 
Maturata, June 22ud, 1881. 
Dear Sir,— I feel assured anything pertaining to a 
new product or industry will not lose any ground for 
the want of advocacy in the columns of the Observer. 
It is with this assurance that I submit to my brother 
planters the suggestion? contained in the following 
aiticle on New Zealand Flax or Phormium Tenax. 
When we speak of "New Products," the low-country 
ia generally understood. Any elevation above 2,000 
feet is totally without a new product, if we except our 
cinchona, whereas below this elevation their names are 
legion. I am sure, if we look about us, we shall find 
many new products that can be grown successfully and 
profitably among the hills, where the climate is Euro- 
pean, and levers conspicuous by their absence. 
My attention was fir3t c'irected to the practicability 
of cultivating New Zealand flax in the upper country 
by seeing as fine a bunch of it near the O B. C. Bank 
in Nuwara Eliya as I ever saw in New Zealand; also, in 
the Dimbula district, in the garden of a well-known 
planter, there is another good specimen. These indivi- 
dual instances almost establish the fact that it will 
grow, and grow well. Therefore, it only rests with me 
to show how the fibre is extracted and the margin of 
profit over expenditure. I think I can speak with a 
degree of authority iu this matter, as my father was 
among I he first to begin the industry in New Zealand. 
About 1870, the settlers were taken with the flax fever 
quite as much as the present gold fever in Ceylon ; 
with this difference, they had plenty of raw material 
at haDd, while the gold fever finds an outlet only in 
barren quartz hitherto. But nV (iesp»randum. "Quartz 
is the mother of gold" is au old diggers proverb and 
a true one. I have seen nearly every diggings in 
New Zealand and many in Australia, and in ail my 
experience I never saw such a quantity of likely 
quartz as I have seen in C •ylon. 
But to return to my subj et. Our first method of 
separating the pulp from the fibre was a very primitive 
one. We had two large wooden tanks made about 15 
to 20 feet long and from 6 to 8 wide. Inside these 
the flax was put soon after cutting and the lids closed 
down tightly ; then steam was injected into the flax 
which softened in about six hours. 
The steaming was always done in the night t ime, 
so that the flax might be ready for the mill in the 
morning. The only oth^r process was to pass the 
softened leaf through bet ween two malleable iron rollers 
which were heavdy weighted >.y compound leverage. 
The fibre came out clean behind the rollers, and the 
pulp passed down a drain prepared for it. The fibre 
was then washed, dried, pressed, and sent home for sale. 
This process I have described was soon succeeded 
by a very ingenious machine which stript the fibre of 
the green outside matter without the trouble of steam- 
ing or rollers of any kind. When we oould erect our 
