1062 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1882. 
injurious. Formerly pencils were almost exclusively 
sawn out of the fiue-gramed massive qualities, such 
as that produced in the now exhausted mines at Bor- 
rowdale, in Cumberland. 
The former high value which this still valuable sub- 
stance possessed has no doubt been the cause of much 
of the importance with which deposits in various parts 
of India have been temporarily invested. The only 
one of these, save possibly that at Vizagapatam, which, 
taking into consideration its quantity and the means 
of transport, is of any present promise, is that which 
occurs over a wide tract in Travancore. Although the 
opinions of experts many years ago were unfavourable, 
it is conceivable that an increased demand and im- 
proved and more economical methods of purification 
might render its exploitation a profitable undertaking. At 
the same time the possibility of further search proving 
the existence of a quality equal to the better kinds 
found in Ceylon cannot be denied, as the probability 
is that the including rocks are of identical age. 
At the present day nearly all the plumbago of com- 
merce comes from Ceylon. It is classified under three 
heads, the prices of which in the London market on 
the 11th March 1881 were as follows: — 
Lump £17-10 to £19 per ton. 
Chip £10-10 to £14 „ „ 
Dust £ 8-10 to £10 „ ,, 
Although graphite occurs in many parts of the United 
States, it is only mined successfully at Ticonderoga 
in the State of New York. 
It may be of interest here to enumerate the principal 
uses to which this substance is put. It is used in the 
manufacture of pencils, crucibles, stone or grate polish, 
as a lubricator for machinery, electrotyping, faces for 
moulds or foundry facings, refractory mixtures, and 
for giving a protecting surface to the interior of blow- 
ing cylinders in blast furnaces. 
Th3 pencils of the present clay are made by mixing 
very finely divided graphite with a particular kind of 
clay in varying proportions according to the shades re- 
quired. There is much adulteraiion in the black leads 
commonly sold; but for information on these subjects 
and on the various proceesses employed, reference may 
be made to the usual text- books. 
Then follow a list of the places in India where 
plumbago or traces of it have been found. General 
Cullen reported it in Travancore in 1845, but 
Some samples, which were forwarded to the Asiatic 
Society from a locality south of Trivandram, were con- 
sidered by Mr. Piddington to be too soft and scaly 
for the manufacture of pencils, i. e.. by the old method. 
The matrix appears to be a pseudo-laterite formed of 
decomposed gneiss in situ. One specimen now in the 
Geological Museum is covered with a salt efflorescence, 
and certainly, it may be said, judging from the various 
original samples in the collection, that without much 
grinding and washing they could not be made avail- 
able even for the inferior purposes for which graphite 
is employed. Samples from this locality, Vizagapatam, 
and Almora, were exhibited in London at the exhib- 
ition of 1851. 
Mr. King has sent samples of a much purer look- 
ing graphite, obtained during the present year from 
a deposit close to Vellurnad, near Arinaud ; probably 
this locality is the same as General Cullen's. The 
veins in which it occurs are said to cross the strike 
of the gneiss. Apparently this not easily account- 
able mode of occurrence has been observed in America 
also. 
It is, perhaps, needless to observe that the smallest 
particles of grit in graphite for pencils is most prejud- 
icial, whilst for lubricating purposes, if graphite be not 
absolutely pure, it may be most injurious to machinery ; 
for the coarser purposes of making crucibles the pre- 
sence of iron would certainly diminish the refractory 
properties of the material 
More uncertain is General Cullen's alleged discovery of 
the mineral in Tinnevelly. Dr. King of the Geo- 
logical Survey saw traces in the Kistna and Godavery 
Districts. 
Vizagapatam District.— Graphite is stated to be 
tound near Kasipuram, in the territory of the Maharaja 
of. Viziauagram, also at Rampilli of Salur, and one or 
two other localities. It is used for giving a polish to 
pottery, and can be had in any quantity at a rupee for 
24 lb. at Viziauagram. A sample, now in the Geo- 
logical Museum, is included in a heavy ferruginous 
gneiss, and is not of very promising appearance. 
In Bengal only one doubtful lump has been seen. In 
the Central Provinces it is too impure to be of com- 
mercial value. In Eajputana very inferior mineral is 
found, while plumbago is stated to be one of the re- 
gular productions of Northern Afghanistan. There is 
a long notice of discoveries in the Kumaun district 
of the North-Western Provinces, but the substance 
is so impure that 
Under the curcumstances of quality and position 
there are no grounds for believing that this graphite 
can ever be worked so as to become a profitable com- 
mercial commodity. 
Equally valueless was a supposed deposit of graphite 
at the foot of the Darjeeling Hills, the percentage 
of impurities being equal to that of the carbon. 
TEA. 
Dealers are at present exercised about efficient 
methods of packing the tea for carriage. The 
old, long-standing system of packing tea in wooden 
chests lined with lead has been in force in China for 
centuries, probably. When the industry was started in 
India, we followed the same custom, but it has been 
found a failure. In the first place, the wood we used 
was not so tough, largely consisting of mango and 
other cheap and common woods ; but more recently we 
have used teak. While the former was too fragile to 
admit of rough handling, the latter turns out to be 
too heavy for safe handling. The wood used by the 
Chinese is thin, light, and exceedingly tough. We 
imagine, however, the greatest mistake we committed 
was in using iron corner clamps or hoops. These made 
the boxes practically unyielding at the corners, and 
when a strain occurred, something had to give way. 
The Chinese, on the other hand, use wooden split 
hoops, which give and take, and a box seldom falls to 
pieces under rough handling. Another thing which 
induced us to turn our attention to some other material 
was the demand which has recently sprung up at home 
for half, quarter and eighth chests. The tare on these 
was out of all proportion to the net contents. An en- 
terprizing firm at home started the idea of using tin 
boxes for these smaller packages, and considerable di- 
versity of opinion exists as to the advisability of using 
tin for this purpose. Some hold the opinion that tea 
packed in tin is bound to acquire a metallic flavour, 
and that if it is at all damp, it must corrode the tin 
eventually. This is very true ; but the objectors for- 
get that if the tea is damp, it is only fit to be thrown 
away. Damp tea will ferment and decay, whatever it 
may be packed in. Some even go the length of re- 
marking that it is questionable whether, even if tea 
be thoroughly dry when packed, the chemical constit- 
uents contained in it will not in some way combine 
(chemically) with the tin, and the tea imbibe thereby 
some kind of taint. Paper for lining is suggested as 
a palliative. We do not think that any one who has 
tried paper lining will repeat the experiment. Let tea 
be ever so dry, it will draw a certain amount of damp 
which seizes upon the starch in the paper and reduces 
it to pulp. The advantages of the tin boxes are many ; 
if they are properly soldered down, the contents are 
impervious to weather ; the same boxes can be used 
