248 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. 2, 1893. 
VARIOUS AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 
The Sylhet Tea Company and Ceylon Estates. — 
We do not think we are bettajing any tect»l when we 
say that Mr. A. Y. Baohanan bag oome oat to repre- 
eeut the Sylhet Tta Company in Ceylon, at-d to 6ce 
what pronpect there ie ot any large extent of land 
or estates being secured for that Oompany. He has 
already paid a visit to Dimbnla and Dik iya, and left 
this afternoon for Kakwana via Kituapara, Mr. 
Buchanan will see many changes in all the districts 
he visits since he was last here, but we should tkii k 
that he would experience great difficulty iu securing 
Bucb a large block of tea or tea lard in oue locality 
as he is reported to be after on behalf of the Oom- 
pany he represents, unless he is willing to pay a very 
high price tor it indeed. 
The Tbopioal Englishman. — That the active 
habits of the Englishman (or Britisher) preserve him 
from the effects of a tropical climate has long been 
the belief of those who have had experience iu 
both tha East and West Indies; now it reoeivee 
scientific explanation and endorsement from the 
pen of Dr. Eijkman, of Batavia who discue.sing the 
question of " Tissue Change in the Inhabitants of 
the Tropics," says that they are all, espeoially Eu- 
ropean settlers, disinclined to bodily exortion and 
limit muscular work to only necessary movements. 
It is only the Englishman, he says true to the 
customs of his country, who is more or less an 
exception to the rule. — English Blechanic. 
Tea and Caoao in farther Uva.— It is 
cheering to hear of the progress recently made 
in developing tea and cacao fields in Eastern Uva. 
The long>neglected Moneragala district is in a 
fair way to come to the front after an important 
fashion, if only Government complete the outlet 
by bridging certain streams. Already cacao is 
doing so well that applications are in for all 
the remaining available forest land and .there 
are no drawbacks now save a ready means 
of getting to the railway station and the stern 
repression of the native thieves of pods and pre- 
pared produce, who would fain imitate their 
Matale brethren. As there is little or no native 
grown cocoa in Eastern Uva, the making holders 
of such produce accountable for its possession 
would speedily put a stop to the thefts com- 
plained of, which are chiefly from and by the 
tavelam men, perhaps in collusion with store- 
keepers.— In respact of tea, the really wonderful 
results got from patena-land in Uva must arreH 
attention. In the Fassera and neighbouring dis- 
tricts, 500 to 600 lb. made tea from joung fields 
on very ordinary patena, is a regular experience 
and it is quite evident that there is special en- 
couragement to extend the cultivation of both pro> 
ducts in the Principality. 
^ORTH East Matale, Sept. 4th. — We have had 
so much wind lately that the wonder is we have 
have been getting any flush at all, and compared 
with last year we are getting even more than we 
did then. Thanks are due to Dr. Trimen and 
your other correspondents for the interesting 
description of the new enemy to tea and for 
their suggestions as to how we should get rid of 
it ehould we see the slightest symptoms of its 
presence. I shall be on the look-out for it and 
let you know the result; This proposed method 
of gathering the Uelopeltis reminds me of when 
I was Sinna Dorai on an estate in 1871. I was 
known amongst the i.'.olies in that district 
as the "Pooohi Dorray" from the fact of 
my taking the trouble of collecting every 
day at 4 o'clock, all the coffee borers the coolies 
brought me and for which they were paid 
a half-penny each at the commencement, and 
gradually the nvirober was iraised untii we got I 
think ten for a penny. The coolies ifii bo used to 
catching them that they epotted the I rancb with the 
boier before the leaves showed the hiightest decay, 
broke ofl the twig with the borer in it, rolled i( up 
in his cloth, and went on with I s work. At 4 
o'clock the coolies were as busy i.s wood-cutters 
chopping up their branches and Iwi.^e, hammering 
them with stones or breaking them .vuh their teeih 
to get out the pooches alive. They then brought 
them to me spread on a leaf or leitvis to enable me 
to count them and see them put into old salt 
bottles. Each collector received a ticket stating 
the number gathered, the date, and my initials. 
The tickets were cashed every Saturday. The 
coolies were delighted with thetr poochi " kaeie," 
which got for them little luxuries tfaey would 
otherwise have bad to go without. 
Ceylon Tea in AueTUALU.— A contexporary 
is anxious to know when we yisited Austria. We 
were in Vienna not in the Spring o( 1^92, but in 
September Austria got 74,426 lb. ot Ceylon 
tea direct iu all 1691 and 03,793 lb. in 1892. Bo 
far this year, the direct export has fallen o£[ most 
miserably— less than 4,000 lb. against over S0,000 
lb. to same date last year. But it is quite possibie 
that this means a diversion of the trade to the 
London market. M. Kogivue's friend who had 
taken up the Vienna bueiness seemed well pleased 
with his prospects; but he found it more conve- 
nient to buy in L ndon ; and in regard to Carlsbad, 
several London uealers in Ceylon teas, to whom we 
poke, were we know, going to try that market. 
A Lady Aobicultdbal Invebtioatob. — The tea 
planters of Oeylon are as much interested as any 
boJy of agriculturists in the investigation taken 
up by Miss O'Brien, who was recently awarded oue 
of the Scientific Research Scho'arships ; for she 
proposes to investigate the question of the nitrogen 
supply of leguminous and other plants. Miss 
O'Brien has had a brilliant career. Her earliest 
education was received at the Friends' Sohoole, in 
Ackworth and York. After teaching for tome time 
at the latter institution she gained an open Bobolar- 
ship of £25 for natural science at the Aberystwith 
College in 1890, and took her B.Sc. (Lond.) degree 
last year, with honours in both botany and zoology. 
In the former subject Bhe was third in order ot 
merit, and was aloce in her class. Mies CBrien, 
who is the daughter of Mr. Thomas O'Brien of 
Liverpool and she is to study under Professor 
Vines at Oxford. 
IksECTICIDE r SUCCESBKCL EXPEBIIIENTB ON " PaDDT 
Flies " in Mataea. — Last Government Gazette 
contained ^interesting correspondence in reference 
to experiments made in the Weligam Korale 
with the well-known insecticide " London 
Purple" sprayed on the paddy for the destruction 
of the flies often bo damaging to that crop. The 
experiment has been made unaer Mr. Le Mesurier's 
direction and the Mudaliyar reports entire success. 
There is ample encouragement now to try the 
same experiment in other grain-growing districts 
and Mr. Le Mesurier suggests that as a remedy 
for green bug in coffee the mixture so sprayed 
might be effective. We should expect Mr. atarey 
(who seems to have put Mr. Le Mesurier in the 
way of this experiment) to have given it a trial 
on coffee : indeed we have some recollection of a 
trial of " London Purple" some years ago on some 
Oeylon plantations, but that may have been for the 
leaf fungus ? Planters are now not troubled with 
too much coffee, and we think one of the Uva 
proprietors might well give a trial to the sprayer 
and mixture on fields affected by green bag and 
report the reeuU for the general benefit. 
