6 2 8 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [January 2, 1882. 
THE SACK CURE FOR GRUB. 
Mornington, Nov. 30th, 1881. 
Dear Sir, — I have tried Mr. Parsons' plan of using 
sacking on two estates, on a small scale, and have 
found it succeed perfectly in bringing all grub to the 
surface.— Yours truly, C. B. LUTYENS. 
MR. SCHROTTKY'S EXPERIMENTS ON AN ~ 
ESTATE IN MATALE. 
Colombo, 30th November 1881, 
Dear Sir, — Mr. Borron invites me to come to 
Matale and study some facts connected with my 
experiments. There is one thing Mr. B. can make 
quite sure of, viz , that while I am in the Island 
I do not fail to keep myself acquainted with the 
results of my experiments as they, from time to 
time, become apparent. I am cognisant of all Mr. B. 
says regarding tbe estate he refers to and of more, 
for while he (Mr. B.) has, as far I can judge from 
his letter, seen only 5 to 10 acres of the estate. 1 
have during the last three weeks gone twice over 
and through the whole of it (20 acres). The time 
has not come vet for closing the results there. — 
Yours faithfully, EUGENE C. SCHROTTKY. 
TO BRING OUT THE COLOUR OF 
TEAK WOOD? 
Dear Sir, — Would any of your readers kindly 
mention what is*the best plan for treating teak wood, 
so as to bring out the colour, and graining more 
clearly, after the varnish has been laid on? Would 
it be necessary to apply a wood stain, and of what 
kind ?— Faithfully yours, Q. 
COST OF CLEARING LAN TANA LAND. 
Maria, 3rd December 1881. 
Dear Sir, — "Never Too Old to Learn" should pay 
fifteen rupees for felling and clearing and ten rupees 
for taking out roots and burning same per acre. 
He should road, drain, hole, and plant up the land 
as soon as possible after the burn, say fell in Feb- 
ruary, burn, clear and hole in March and plant in 
April. Do not heap lantana roots for burning except 
on roads, as no plants will come on on the spot 
where lantana roots were heaped and burnt.— Yours 
faithfully, J. HOLLOW AY. 
P. S. —I am glad to be able to send some indigo 
seed herewith. Will you forward same to your cor- 
respondent. If they can export croton seed and indigo 
from India why not from Ceylon, I shall try to do so. 
Your Kadugannawa correspondent certainly could 
not have had lantana as we have it here of 
twelve years' growth. 1 had lantana cleared where 
a man had to creep underneath and first cut it 
with a knife or cattie a foot above ground, then 
others had to beat it down and cut down the sides, 
and ten men could not do more than a quarter acre 
properly. It took three weeks after it was cut down 
before I could burn it. It is necessary you should 
have a good burn throughout, as it is less expens- 
ive and better for the plants with the ashes nicely 
over the whole ground than to be obliged to roll 
or heap it and burn. There is some lantana which 
could be done for R12 per acre ; but if it is of twelve 
years' growth the soil must be poor to be able to get 
a contractor to fell, clear, take out and burn the 
roots of lantana at that price. J. H. 
Damage/) Tea in Melbourne.— One of the best an- 
swers to Mr. Everard's bluster indefence of China tea 
is to be found in paragraphs like that which follows, 
extracted from the Age of October 25th: — "The 
Customs officers were engaged yesterday in destroying 
a large quantity of damaged tea recently imported 
into this colony." 
Tea in Australia. — A great deal of excitement has 
lately been caused in Adelaide by the anuouncement 
that tea had been discovered in the Northern Ter- 
ritor}'. It is said that during the Adelaide Parlia- 
mentary receess, the Minister for the Northern Ter- 
ritory will visit that part of the Province, in order to 
satisfy himself as to the character of these discoveries' 
— Pioneer. 
Planting Information : The " Tropical Agri- 
culturist." — We had a request the other day from 
a mercantile Firm to procure for them copies of the 
Mr. Moens' Java Reports on Cinchona Culture. 
Our reply was that all these Reports, which are in 
Dutch, are translated and re-published in our columns, 
more especially in the Tropical Agriculturist, in which 
also are given the Indian Reports by Dr. King, 
Colonel Beddome, Mr. Gammie, &c, as well as Dr. 
Trimen's and Mr. Howard's papers. There can be 
no doubt that all proprietors, cultivating cinchona 
or other "new products," should direct a file of the 
Tropical Agriculturist to be kept on their plantations 
(and bound up once a year) for reference. The 
proper value of the publication will probably not 
be realized until it is too late to get back copies. 
Mercantile agents for estates and for absent proprie- 
tors should not overlook the hint. 
Coffee Planting near Mauritius.— A gentleman 
living upon an island near Mauritius wrote to a 
Ceylon friend and fellow-passenger to Aden as follows : — 
Pomong Johanna, Comoro Island?, Oct. 17th, 1881. 
Just a line. How did you reach and find things on 
your return? We stayed 14 days at Mauritius and 
I got here on 16th August. I think I shall start coffee 
here. It grows well, but does not last more than 9 
years. If I start, I shall plant at an elevation of 1,000 
or 800 feet. I have some 27 plants of Liberian 
coffee— young plants. How does it do in Ceylon ? Will 
you in a letter send me some cardamom seed to 
plant here. Also tell me how it is cultivated, and 
if it pays you to grow it in Ceylon ? I think 
next year I shall pay Ceylon a visit also, for in- 
formation. Will you write as soon as you can and 
give the information about cardamom and its culti- 
vation? Does it yield in a year, and what is the 
produce worth? Also let me know about Liberian 
coffee and give me any news, like a good fellow. The 
four engineers, our fellow-passengers in the steamer, did 
not like Mauritius. 
Home Appreciation of Indtan Teas.— The Cal- 
cutta Englishman, writing of a late tea sale there, and 
the prices realized, says : — "We have no hesitation in 
pronouncing the sale a remarkable one, as it marks 
the beginning of an era of prosperity for those en- 
gaged in the industry." Our contemporary further 
adds : — "In the face of one of the cheapest China 
crops on record and a market for Indian tea ranging 
fully 3d over 1880, the consumption of our tea has 
increased by over 7 million lb., the deliveries in 
London will certainly reach 50 million lb. this year, 
while the total outturn cannot approach that figure, 
and the increasing Colonial and American demand will 
appreciably reduce the supply available for the London 
market. The fact that the grocer at home has this 
year paid 3d per lb. over last year for Indian tea at 
a time when China teas were available at unusually 
low prices, and that the consumption at the enhanced 
prite has increased to such an extent, proves that the 
demand for Indian teas is established, and that they 
will be bought whatever may be the price of the in- 
ferior China article." Now the Ceylon teas are not 
a whit behind the Indian, and the " era of pro- 
sperity," which the home demand is opening up for 
the Assam tea-planters, will without doubt also reach 
ourselves. 
