684 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1882. 
staunch advocate of China teas, has now changed 
front, and made the following statement in the 
Legislative Council, during the discussion on the Tea 
Bill. He said (vide Argus, 25th November) ; — "No 
shipment of tea came into this colony that did not 
contain exhausted leaves. * * * They were 
exhausted by wet weather before being picked 
from the bush." After denouncing Messrs. Cosmo 
Newbery and Dunn for making such a state- 
ment, Mr. Lorimer turns round and admits the 
truth of it, but says exhaustion is done by the rain 
whilst the leaf is on the shrub ! I wonder if Mr. L. 
ever studied the use of the essential oil and chloro- 
phyl in the economy of nature. Probably not, or 
such an absurd statement would not have been made 
by him. However Mr. Lorimer admits that all teas 
from China contain exhausted leaves : Messrs. Cosmo 
Newbery and Dunn say the same thing, but that the 
exhaustion is caused by the leaves being once used 
before sending to Melbourne, a most essential difference. 
Mr. Lorimer, continuing his arguments in Parlia- 
ment, says "that, as exhausted leaves are not injurious 
to health, they should not be interfered with and 
might be consumed," Proh pudor ! where is our 
commercial morality ? It is bad enough to be taken 
in by imitations, instead of genuine tea from China, 
without finding defenders for the roguery of the 
Chinese amongst our own merchants. 
It is gratifying, however, to see the steady progress 
that pure teas from India are making with the 
public, find there is every prospect of consumption in- 
creasing this season 50 to 100 per cent over last ; and 
this in the face of high prices ruling on your side, and 
the heaviest stock of China teas ever held in Melbourne. 
No Ceylon teas have been offered to the public since the 
sale on the 18th .October, or the larger saleon 16th Aug- 
ust. It is advisable to keep your teas steadily before 
the Melbourne buyers, and I feel sure you will find a bet- 
ter market here for well-made leaf than London can offer. 
Electric Light and Vegetation.— Dr. C. W. 
Siemens read a paper before the British Association 
detailing a series of experiments he had made with 
the view of showing the influence of the electric light 
on vegetation and the application of electric energy 
to farming operations. The most recent of these exper- 
iments were made between October of last and May of 
the present year, the electric light being in opera- 
tion from 5 and 6 p.m., until the dawn of every day 
except Sunday. The general results of these experi- 
ments went to show that the electric light was capable 
of producing on plants effects comparable to those of 
solar radiation and favourable to healthy growth. 
As to the theory of diurnal rest being necessary to plant 
life, Dr. Siemens gave it as his opinion, as the result 
of his experiments, that, although periodic darkness 
evidently favoured growth, the continual stimulus of 
light appeared to promote healthy development and to 
accelerate the plant through its different stages of flower 
and fruit. The questions, however, of temperature 
and the proximity of the electric light still remained 
to be dealt with experimentally with the view of de- 
termining the best conditions. Dr. Siemens also gave 
the results of experiments which he had made in ap- 
plying electric energy to farming operations, including 
the pumping of water, sawing of timber, &c. He had 
been so sirongly impressed with the results chained 
that he thought the electric transmission of power might 
eventually be applied to thrashing, reaping, and plough- 
ing; in fact, that all the work of a farm might be directed 
from a central station of electric power, instead of being 
c rriid out, as at present, through tbe agency of steam. 
.So far us he bad gone, the electric apparatus had been 
und>-r the cole charge of his head gardener, with the 
ai-sisiance of under gardeners and field labourers, who 
had probably never before beard of electricity, 
The Sikkim Quinetum fs the subject of an im- 
portant letter from Mr. Grammie in another column, 
in which he shews that so far from the cost to 
Government being still over R16 per lb. (as Mr. 
Howard supposed), it is not more than R8 per lb. 
Aloes in Mauritius. —The last mail brought news 
of an. advance in the value of Aloe fibre in England, 
which has given an impulse to the establishment of 
mills for the extraction of this article and it seems 
likely to be produced on a more extensive scale. — 
Mauritius Mercantile and Commercial Gazette. 
New Products in the Eastern Province of Cey- 
lon.— On Mr. Fielder's plantation of Mahaoya situated 
near the side of the Badulla-Batticaloa road, there are 
some 49 acres planted with Rubbers, Cocoa, Liberian 
Coffee and Sapanwood. The district is rather too dry— 
although at present wet enough — for coffee ; cocoa is 
doing pretty well ; Sapanwood growing apace, and 
Rubbers a great success. A tree of the latter, only eight 
months old, measures 22 feet by 5 inches. 
Ledgeriana Seed. — It will be seen from an ad- 
vertisement in our local paper that there will be 
little need to trouble Java planters further, for a 
supply of seed of the valuable ' Ledgerianas.' The 
analyses of Yarrow trees, from which seed can 
very soon be had, are as good (with from 4 to 7J 
per cent of quinine) as the average of the trees 
from which seed has been imported from Java, and 
we have no doubt the Ceylon seed will germinated well 
being freshly gathered. 
Nilgiris. — The weather is still undecided, and we 
alternate between frosty cold and mist. It is time 
the frost bad set in, as after the heavy and pro- 
tracted North-East monsoon, a spell of dry weather 
is looked for to ripen the coffee. The coffee crop in 
parts will be very late this season. Cinchona plauters 
are actively employed bringing in fern to shelter the 
last season's young planting against the severity of the 
frost, and tea manufacture will continue for some months 
to come in favored localities.— South of India Observer. 
Keeping Butter. — The plan described below is a 
very old one, and it enjoys the reputation of being 
good :— To three gallons of brine strong enough to 
bear an egg, add a quarter of a pound of tine white 
sugar, and one tablespoonful of saltpetre. Boil the 
brine, and when it is cold strain carefully. Make your 
butter into rolls, and wrap each separately in a clean 
white muslin cloth, tying up with a string. Pack a 
large jar full, weight the buttei down, and pour over 
it the brine until all is submerged. This will keep 
really good butter perfectly sweet and fresh for a 
whole year. Be careful not to put ice upon the butter 
that you wish to keep for any leugih of time. In 
summer, when heat will not admit of small jars, take 
large ones, and, using the same brine, allow it to 
cover the butter to the depth of at least four incl 
This excludes the air, and answers as well as the 
first method suggested. — Australasian. 
Lieutenant de Hoghton gives the Australian press 
a strange account of a tree he saw on one- -ex the 
islands in Torres Straits, which reminds one of the 
romance of the man-eating tree of Madagascar, or 
some of Jules Verne's stories. He declares that this 
tree picks up bones from the ground and carries them 
into its upper branches. He describes one tree which 
came under his observation as being 30 feet in 
heigl t, with the extremities of all its branches and 
twigs covered with bones, apparently adhering to them. 
The tree stood outside some huts, and tbe bones 
thrown under it were taken up, he supposed, by the 
leaves, until it was quite loaded. It is allowable to 
imagine that Mr. de Hoghton did not examine into 
the matter with much critical acumen, and that he 
believed too readily what he was told. Were the 
pendant objects really bones ? Perhaps some aftercomer 
will confirm or disprove the etory. —Straits Times. 
