December i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
553 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
SALT FROM THE NIPA PALM. 
Colombo, 2 1st Oct. 1881. 
Bear Sik, — In recent numbers of the Tropical Agri- 
culturist, Messrs. W. Ferguson and M. Cochran gave 
interesting descriptions of the production of lime 
from the kuinbuk tree. The following extracts regard- 
ing the manufacture of salt from the nipa palm 
may also, perhaps, bo deemed worthy of insertion. — 
Yours, KAROLY FURDO. 
" On the left bank (of the R. Abai Borneo), there are 
two small branches, Gading and Paka Paka, inhab- 
ited, the Bata (chief) said, by some villager of 
Ida'an. There appear to lie but few people living 
on this river, or rather salt-water creek. Three very 
small hamlets, containing altogether about thirty 
houses, were all I saw. There are numerous sheds 
for making salt, which appears to be the principal 
industry of the Bajus. The manufacture is conducted 
as follows :— Great heaps of the root of the nipa 
palm, that always grows in salt or brackish water, 
are collected and burnt ; the residue is swept up 
and thrown into half-filled pans, where the ashes 
and small particles of wood are separated and the 
water boiled ; a coarse bitter salt is the result. It 
is not disagreeable after a little use, and I much 
prefer it to the common article brought from Siam, 
and generally sold in these countries. The natives 
of the norih seldom use I he imported salt, except 
for preserving fish, whereas towards Sarawak, the 
Siamese is rapidly taking the place of that procured 
from the nipa palms." • 
" The nipa palm is indeed a blessing to the natives; 
as we have seen they make a salt from the ashes 
of the root ; they extract a coarse BUgar from I he stem : 
they cover in their houses with the leaf : from the 
last also they manufacture the mat called kejang, 
with which they form the walls of their houses, and 
the best awning in the world for boats, perfectly 
■Ster-tight, and well-adapted to keep out the rays 
of the sun. The cigars are rolled up in the fine 
inner leaf, and a native could doubtless tell of a 
dozen other uses to which it is put. In ascending 
rivers, there is nearly always deep water near the nipa, 
but shallow near the mangrove." 
" The banks of the Kabataun, except near the 
entrance, were entirely of mangrove swamp, until we 
arrived within a short distance of the scattered vil- 
lage of Menggatal, but from our boat we could see 
the sloping hills that rose almost immediately 
behind the belt of mangrove. The first buildings we 
saw were those in which the natives were making 
salt. I have already described the process pursued 
in the Abai, but here it was somewhat different, as 
they burnt the roots ot the mangrove with those of 
the nipa palm, as well as wood collected on the sea- 
beach, and therefore impregnated with fait. In one 
place, 1 noticed a heap, perhaps tifteen feet in height, 
.-lii It. r 1 by a rough covering of palm-leaves, and 
several men were about checking all attempts 
of the llames to burst through by throwing salt- 
water over tlu> pile. This, doubtless, renders the 
■OOess much more productive. In one very large shed, 
they had a kind of rough furnace, where they burnt 
the wood : and suspended around were many baskets in 
Dion the rough remains of the lire are placed, and 
the u hole soaked in water, and stirred about till the salt 
il supposed to havo been extracted from the charcoal 
and ashes. The liquid is then boiled, as at Abai, 
in In iron pans purchased from tho Chinese." — 
Life in (If Fort sts of tin Fur Fust, by Spencer St. John, 
i.i. ... i i:.s., vol. I. pp. 233, 237. (1862.) 
13'J 
WHAT IS GOOD PARCHMENT COFFEE? 
October 2Gth, 1881. 
Bear Sir, — I have often noticed that coffee dealers, 
as well as some merchants, prefer the white parch- 
ment coffee to the reddish parchment. Old experienced 
hands will not be guided by that as a test for good 
parchment. The cherry, when half ripe, will give the 
whitest parchment ; but the bean is not. heavy, and 
very often not full, whereas tho reddish parchment 
is a sign that the cherry was very ripe on the frc .. 
before being plucked: the bean is lull, heavy and 
good in colour. There is. however, a discoloured 
parchment, more of a greyish colour, which has been 
too long allowed in fermenting cisterns, or in heaps, 
and has a musty smell. It is difficult to say how 
it may turn out. — Yours truly, PARCHMENT. 
ENEMIES OF CEARA RUBBER SEEB. 
Allagalla, Eadugannawa. 
Dear Sir, — I can add another enemy to the Ceara 
rubber seed. I have my Ceara seed, which have 
been previously dipped in kerosine oil, planted in 
bamboo pots in my store. One morning, 1 noticed two 
or three seeds had been removed. On that evening I 
examined the pots again, and saw that ev< ry pot con- 
tained its seed. The next morning, on ex imination 
I found 21 seeds had disappeared. On a closer 
examination, I found in one or two pots the foot print 
of a rat, and, a short distance from where tlie pots 
were, the busks of eight or ten seeds broken into 
small pieces. I think that there can be no doubt that 
the rats carried away the seeds. — Yours faithfully, 
Wm A. F. MURRAY. 
P.S. — If a lighted lantern is hung over the pots all 
night, the rats will keep at a distance. 
BEES AND COFFEE BLOSSOMS. 
Sir, — It is to be hoped that any of your upeountry 
readers, who may have experienced visits of swarms 
of bees to their coffee estates during blossoming time, 
will not hesitate to attempt to throw some li_;lit upon 
the question mooted by one of your correspondents, 
who seems to attribute our successive short crops to 
the yearly decreasing swarms of bees, brought about 
by the denudation of forests, and the introduction 
of wide expanses of coffee plantations, which burst 
into {Lower only very occasionally. 
In addition to the suggested planting up of one 
per cent of never-ceasing flowering shrubs (intended 
as a playground, in turn, for the different hives of 
bees, until the bursting of the big coffee blossoms, 
when the whole army would simultaneously be set 
free and sent to the front), I consider it would be 
necessary to plant up, say, five per cent of the acreage 
with Coor^, Mysore, Neilgherry, Liberian, Jamaica, 
or even Brazilian coffee trees. These would, no doubt, 
blossom at the same time as the originally planted 
trees, which, from their interminable in-and-in treatment, 
have arrived at their present almost unfruitful stage. 
The bees would assist quickly to distribute the new 
and invigorating pollen, and help to bring us back once 
again nearer to the mueh-wishedfor 
ROUND MILLION. 
[One scientilic authority says :— " Bees certainly help 
to fertilize coffee blossom, but there are other agencies 
at work to bring about tho same thing, if I be flower 
is healthy." But an old Kelobokka planter remarks : — 
" Bees are all uonsense for coffee estates, as each 
coffee blossom contaius all the organs of fructification 
within itself. It is quite possible that a bee might 
carry tho pollen of a healthy tree to a weakly one 
and so improve the seed, hut it is just as likely that 
tho order of things might bo rovoreed."— Ed.] 
