i^ov. t, ^393.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
the current year do not fall short of 78 millioa 
lb., we suppose 83 to 85 millionB would be a 
safe reckoning for 1894. But we must not speculate 
farihtr. 
One thing is oertain: that " looal consumption" 
muet henceforward be taken into aooount. Thecu 13 no 
question that a rapidly increasing proportion of 
uur population are inking to tea drinking. In 
Colombo and our other large towns, the consumption 
must be considerable, while in the boutiques along 
tile maia ihoioughfares a bowl of tea can now be 
far more readily got than one of ccffee, the supply 
of which has ftilien to very low as to make it 
almo;)t a luxury in the planting district;, Of course, 
It IS chiefly tbe inferior kinds of Lea that are used 
by the natives so far — tbo red-ieaf, dust and broken 
teas sold off from several faolorius to travelling 
tamby-pedlars who are devuloping an extensive 
business in tuis line, and are beginning to carry 
their distributing trade far beyond the ordinary 
beaten tracks into lem. te districts and secluded 
villages. Nor do we know of any trade that more 
heartily deserves encouragement. The "temperance" 
pi>rty in our midst ougot especially to rejoice in 
the spread of tea-drinkiog habits among the people 
as one of the best autidjtea to the arraok shop. 
Nor need the planter have any feeling but one 
of satisfaction; lor unlike ' ooSee" and "cocoa," 
ilieie IB little or no chance of "lea-leaf" being 
btulen from the field, however much the demand 
for khe prepared product may extend, and 
all he has to do is to guard tiis factory. Of 
oourte, it must be remembered that many of 
the Hinhalrtse tbemeeiyej are becoming culti- 
vators of tea, especially in the lowcountry and 
more particularly in thu Southern Province. In 
his Aaministration Beport for last year, Mr. Elliott 
remarks that " tea planting is becoming popular 
wiih tbe isinhalese : ibeir gardens are especially 
numerous in Wcllaboda aLd Talpe paitas." We 
do not at all fear the renult as regards our ex- 
port trade : we aonsider rather that local con- 
sumption will extend pari passu with such native 
ouiuvaiion until amoug the 3 miiliocs of people 
in Ceylon aa many million lb. of tea are consumed 
— a very low rale of consumpdon as compared 
with that obtaining in the mother-country or the 
Australian oolonies. 
TEA SEED OIL. 
We have lately referred more than onoe to sam° 
nles of oil prepared from lea-sjad, which wer^ 
hinhly approved by Colombo authorities on oil- 
We have reierred one home for report ; but 
meantime we learn from Mr. Walter Agar, Dikoya, 
that some years ago ho secured a report ana 
analysis by a competent English authority, the 
result of which was not favourable. Mr. Agar ia 
good enough to give us the following information: — 
" In May 1S90, I eent a quattity home lor re- 
port aud analjBis. Proteasor Attfieia aualyztd it and 
nia report 1 caunot lay my hands on juat uow, 
hence delay m writing jou. However, thu valuation 
niftced ou it was too low to make a paying spec of 
i by expurtiug it to England. 1 nave some ot what 
1 'ma^e iheu oi.ll here. It ha? become beautifully 
clear hke Luooa oil m the keeping aod for lotal usa 
miahl pay. l' takes a large quautity of seed, 
however 10 produce a bottle ot on ; this was douu 
in my case by a h.nd or cooly ohekko-mill. I may be 
able to get a copy of I'rofeesor Atllield'a analysis 
report from my ftgeuts who sent the oil home and had 
it tested-" ... , 1 « 1 - 
We shall be glad to have the Professor's Analysis 
and Report. It is i^^^ pt^ssible that there would 
be a better demand and prioe now available than 
in 1890. 
DR. VOELCKER'S REPORT ON INDIAN 
AGRICULTURE. 
This report, which after so long a period of iocub* 
ation has at last seen the light, proves to be of n 
far more valuable character ttau could have bee 
antioipated from the brief summaries of Dr. Vo 
Icker'g ideas and conclusious wluoh h»ve appeared 
from time to time fiooti he left India two and a 
half years ago. On Several of these we commented 
at the time they appeared, and we were c instraioed 
to remark that the learned Doctor had not, it seemed 
to ufl, appreciated all the aspects of the problem be- 
fore him. The delay which has been allowed to 
ccour in the preparation of his Report has, however, 
enabled him to set himself right in many ways in 
which at first he appeared to hsve g<ine a^iray, and 
he hng now produced a work v hich — if the powra- 
tbat-be will real, mark, learn, aijd inwarUly dig- 
est the advice he sets before them, and then 
proceed to act thereon consistently and strena- 
ously — should lead to very considerable results as to 
the improvement of Indian agricaltuie. It is not 
that Dr. Voeleker tells us much that has not been 
fa'd before one or other of the various authorities 
who have made a study of the problems of Indian 
agriculture on the spot, but rather that from his 
position as an outsifie", brought in as a scientific 
authority on agricultural mitters he I as been euabled 
to bring such views into fo^us, aud to put them for- 
ward with a weight and imprcsaiveness that no one 
whose pceitioQ has besn that of a student ou the spot 
can ever expect to exeit. Thus the results of Dr. 
Voeloker's Report are likely to be much more far- 
reaching than any that could be expected from what 
might be said or urged by authorities on such matter 
whose reputition ia luriian or merely provincial. Not 
that W5 would be understood to say that all the 
Doctor's ex-cathedra deliverances on such varied agri- 
cultural topics as judging at Horse-Sbows to the 
management of fuel reserves, or from dealing with 
cattle disease to detail? of agricultural education, are to 
be accepted en bloc, but that on the greater number 
of the various matters that he has dealt with, and 
theje are many and diverse, he has shown great 
shrewdness and diaorimination in sifting the wheat 
from the chaff. Where he has tailed, the failures 
are generally of minor importance and ea&ily explained 
by the limitations of the qualifications of an Agri- 
cultural Chemist however able and distinguished, for 
dealing with a matter concerning si wio'e a field as 
agriculture in India, with only one year's experience 
in the country. 
When, four years ago, it wae announced that the 
Secretary of Slate had secured the services of Dr. 
Voeleker to come to India to report upon the possi- 
bility of improving Indian agriculture, and to settle 
once for all a long standing ciscnssion which had 
been proceeding between him and Sir Edward 
Back as to the advisability of furnishing the 
latter with a scientific adviser in agricultural 
matters in the form of an Agricultural Obemist, 
there was an uneasy feeling afloat that the Uovcrn- 
ment of India understood that the mission had been 
entrusted to the distinguished father of the indvi- 
dual who was aolually sent out. As we have already 
said, the son haa fully justified the choice, and has 
added further to the honour in which the name ot 
Voeleker is held in the agricultural world by lha 
manner in v>hich bis work has been done. For the 
greater part of a year he travelled up and down 
the laud, evidently making the most ot his oppor- 
tunilies, which were great, for obtaining from 
everyone who had given thought to the tnatter 
information on the principal subject of his mis- 
sion, and finding here, there, and everywhere 
items of evidence of the utility of having an Agri- 
cultural Chemist to study Indian problems. Dr. 
Voeleker also bad placed at his dippo^al the 
mines of wealth in these respects to be fonti'l 
ia the o£Soial literature of (be Secretariats, aud bia 
Report bears repeated evidenoe of his industry in 
ntiliflini; thest reaoareqt. All tbe«Q sources, from wbiol) 
