^tlE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
rjULv I, T893. 
■am etnnot btve gone very far towards providiog the 
■plnndid display of the products of lodian pluntatioue by 
whioh it ig hoped to oaptirate Amerieau tea driDkers. 
Th« main credit clearly belongs to private eDterprise, 
which will strike the world •« leu of a myth in 
India than is uaaally sopposed. All the leading 
distriota and estates are represented, Auam, C*char, 
Ohitt>goo(r, Darjeeliog, Dooarf, Kumaoo, Sylbet, aod 
the Terai vie with each other in ipreadinK oat their 
ohoic«st products before the vant conitituenoT of 
possible future onitoin»ra who will frequent the Fair. 
Already, without tbe meretricious aid of a firit-class 
■ boom," Indian teas have conomeuced to tind a 
•onslderable sale in America, but it is difficult to 
estimate what tbe present gi^Bntic advertisement may 
do in opening up a still nearly virgia market. — 
Proneer, May 26th, 
■ — * 
ODDS AND ENDS. 
(Hy an ex-Itangalla I'lanter.) 
T£& MADE FKOM AM ORCBID. 
It ia learned from a bulletin issued at Eew that 
the French have been mah ing tea from an orchid, 
Awjrotcum fragrana, for .50 ye&xa. It grows in tbe 
forest cf Bourbon and Mauritius, and is akin to the 
vanilla, which is likewise an orchid. Of the 10, (XK) 
species of orchids koown, about twenty oaly have been 
turned to any use. 
"tea, coffee, cocoa and mate analysis" by 
3. alfred wanklyn, m.r c.s. 
"Old Colonist's" quotation from this work, which 
I here repeat, is something awful : 
"Tea, Ooffee, Oocoa, and Mate Analysis" is the 
title of a book handed to me on leaving England. 
"A practical treatise by J. Alfred Wanklyn, m.b c.s.," 
from which I make the following curious quotation 
for the information of planters (page 81) : — " Coffee 
is a seed which grows in a pod like the pea or bean. 
Tbe plant which produces coffee is a tree, Caffea 
Arabica. — It grows in Arabia, Ceylon, the W. indies, 
Brazil and other hot countries. Before it ia imported 
to Europe the coffee is deprived of the pod and also 
of another covering." 
I wonder if Mr. Wanklyn has been spoken to on 
the subject, and how he feels when he remembers 
that a whole edition of his book, containing the above 
monstrous sentence, is being scattered about the 
world, holding him up to ridicule. It reminds me of 
a question I once read in an agricultural paper, put 
by a correspondent to the Editor, as follows:— "I 
am about to start sheep farming, and, as I am onlv 
an amateur in agricultural matters, I write to ask 
you to be kind enough to let me have your opinion 
aa to which it would be best for me to use in my 
flock, a Leicester or a /ij/(2rau^ic rami" 
SFBAYINQ TEA BUSHES. 
The following cutting from a scientific paper 
speaks for itself : — 
"It has been demonstrated pretty clearly that neither 
copper solution nor arsenical washes, used for spray- 
ing ^uit, are at all likely to cause any danger if 
used with any degree of common precaution ; but it 
has lately been proposed to experiment with insec- 
ticides upon the tea plant, and the idea of drinking 
tea made from the leaves of tea plants that have been 
sprayed in china is at least rather disagreeable. 
Bightly or wrongly many people have less confidence 
in Chinese in the matter of poisons than in men 
of their own nation, and if it becomes a practice to 
spray the tea bushes in China with any such mixtures 
as Paris green our elderly ladies will be apt to have 
disagreeable fancies over their cups of tea. A late 
number of Bell's Weekly Messenger contains a pro- 
Eoaition to spray the tea bushes with a mixture of 
euzine and naphthaline, which is said to act as an 
insecticide, and to evaporate so rapidly that it leaves 
the tenderest foliage uninjured and without the 
alightest trace of taste or smeU. It may be so, but 
the idea ia about as unpleasant as that of eating 
tinned rabbits said to have been poisoned with a 
Bubstance nniniorioQa to bnm&n life. ' 
COSMOPOLITE. 
FROM THE HILLS. 
(By Old ColotUtt.) 
I suppose I dare not aay 
" W£ATH£B" 
or I shall be put down as a grumbler. Yet althoogb, 
it may be 
" CBEEBV CEVIXIH, ■ 
the tea looking splendidly, and the prospect gene- 
really pleasing, one need not go through the country 
like an advertising merrv>andrew ! 
the tea entebpbibe 
may be more prosperous and remunerative than coffee 
ever was, the profits to tbe lucky proprietor—ae I aoi 
assured, — being £7 or £8 per acre, while his wall-paid 
Superintendent sups porridge and porter inat«ad of 
the erstwhile humble curry-and-ricc NevertheLeas, 
as a Briton I claim my right to take my plesMsrea 
sadly, and ae I passed by tht^ huge pile of old 
' COFFEE BTUMM 
at Drayton. I am not sore I did not shed a few tears. 
It may have been only rain-drops, but in any cMe I 
brushed them away as I approached once more the 
classic grounds of 
" TAKOAFOO " 
where in days of yore grand old fluHMmu* prtmin 
attained the climax of his " potestature "—enter- 
tained Royalty — hearkened to the voice of UercoW 
and silenced any local dog who dared bark in bia 
presence. 
Hov.' changed the scene ! The same old undulat- 
ing lands — the 8am« grand water-fall ;— but ye giants 
of old and poor king coffee, ' Faur are ye »' Ijka 
the Flowers o' the Forest 
' A wede away.' 
And yet not all ; — for the true 
PATEIAHCB OF THE OIBTBICT 
still flourishes, and I hope it may be my fate to 
meet him soon. It is 35 years ago next week, since 
this worthy planter first took up the reins at " tongal 
tottum " (Union) — the then ultima tt,ule as the Tamil 
name implies, and I well recollect enjoyiitg bis 
hospitality soon after, when he entbusiaf>tically des- 
cribed a magnificent water-fall he had just discovered 
in the jungle — the now familiar falls of Devon. What 
changes this interesting veteran has seen since then I 
And what an amount of splendid work he has accom- 
plished. Surely, it is high time he were treating 
nimself once more to a sniff of his native air on the 
East coast of Scotland, where so many of his friends 
are anxious to welcome him home again. It is only 
four months ago since I met half-a-dozen old friends 
of Gamrie and Bangalla davs, who expressed tbe 
earnest hope of seeing Mr. M. at home this sum- 
mer. Unfortunately he was not in Dimbula as I 
passed through, else I would have delivered the mes- 
sage in person. Hence this round-about way of 
getting at him. 
NOW ABOUT KINO COFFEE. 
I was surprised to tind about 100 acres still thriv- 
ing on Craigielea, to which estate Dimbula owe* 
much. It was the first to show the way into IHmhvJa 
felix, and evidently made up its mind to reserve this 
100 acres of the old product as a warning to others, 
proving the hopeless futility of leaving a single 
coffee plant alive in this never very fruitful valley. 
This coffee looks as green and healthy as coffee 
did 30 years ago with little appearance of bug and 
less of crop. 1 do not think the most sanguine or 
desperate V.A. could estimate one-tenth of a cwt. 
per acre. To cherish coffee under such circumstances 
shows at once a respect for tbe old product and a 
desire to experiment for the public good which cannot 
be too highly commended. 
Passing along near to the bridge leading to 
FOREST CBEEK, 
I was suddenly startled by an apparition. 1 am no 
believer in ghosts, but there was sjmething so real- 
istic in this illusion, if illaaiou it was, that bad the 
