400 tHt: TkOPlCAL AGRlCULTURtST. fDEc. i, 1893. 
oertaia oonditioDhi to grow the Ledger tree, I fear 
she has but little chanoe of competing Buoo£s3ful'y. 
Still, if in the course of time the demand Bboaid 
extend beyond the capacities of Java to supply — 
and the available area there is now very ehort — 
or should inferior sorts obtain a fresr market, the 
trees cow standing in Ceylon might be made profit- 
able, but I don't suppose its planters will over care to 
plant fresh trees extensively, or that it would pay them 
if they did. No, I think Ceylon must be c intent with 
having made a good thing of the bark in the past. 
It undoubtedly helped its planters well over the 
bridge bstween coif je and tea. I think the eoil of 
Java to be throughout far better than that of 
Ceylon, It always seems to me that it was a 
mistake of the British tiovernment to give up Java 
and retain Ceylon. The former is very rapidly 
coming to the front with many cultivatioDS, and its 
Government is doing all it can to foster thejp. I 
know several young men whoarenowgoirg out to Java 
to plant coffee on the Ceylon plan, and ih're seems 
every reason to expect success for them." It is to 
be feared these views of Mr. Hamilton are some- 
what opposed to the anticipations recently expressed 
by yourselves. He told mehe had readyour remark^, 
but that he could not fully endorse them for the 
reasons be gave me as stated al.ove. It occurs to 
myself, in addition to Mr. Hamilton's reasons, 
that Java must have a great advantage in any 
competition with Ceylon owing to the absence of 
fluctuation in her currency value. With her 
guilder always maintained at la 8d, while your rupee 
intrintiaally worth 20 per cent more, chopping 
and changing about from Is 3d or so, she cannot 
fail to come to the front. 
TEi SEED CIL. 
Another expert that afforded me an interview 
this week was Mr. Christy. We resumed our 
former conversation on the subject of tea oil, but 
Christy was able to give me but little additional 
information to this matter. He remarked howtver : 
— "Ido not see that, even if the oil could ba used 
for any special application, its manufacture could 
be economically or beneiiaially carried out in 
OeyloQ. In tbe first place it does not seem to ma 
that the cake after the oil has been expressed 
could be made available. It certainly would not be 
Buited as a cattle food. The on'y thing that coull 
be done with it would be to return it to the 
Boil as manure. Now in the expressing of most 
other oils, such as that obtained from cotton seed, 
oopra, &o., the residual is almost as valuable as 
the oil. At all events it is in no case known to 
me a wasted product, but I cannot suggest any 
purpose to which tea- oake could be applied save 
that of manuring, and I doubt if it would be 
well suited even to that purpose. If tea seed oil 
were to oommand a high price this might not be 
a matter of such ejonomio consequence. But, 
as I before told you, it does not secure this. It 
could never, in my opinion, compete with cotton 
Beel oil, which can ba and is applied to such 
■ a diversity of purposes. It can be bo cheaply 
produced, too, that no comparison could be 
made between the price of it and that of oil 
exptessed from tea. la short, no oil can com- 
pete with it either for wide application or for 
cheapness of production, and I should not counsel 
your planters to trouble themselves about trying 
experiments with tea oil." 
A NEW FODDER PLANT. 
On my asking Mr. Christy whether he had of late 
oome across any new products facts as to which might 
interest Ceylon readers, he replied : — " There is one 
that I believe might well recommend itself to the 
SoneidnfttioQ ol bU dwelleta in Ceylon. Xbis h the 
PuHgonum." (Query, if my epelliog be quite oorrejt.) 
" This is a most wonderful fodder plant, and I 
some time back promised Mr. Ferguson I would 
write him fully with reference to it, but time 
has not permitted of my fuiii ling that promise. 
This plant is found in a natural etata only in 
the island of tjagholian. Some nine years back 
I managed to obtain a few slices of tbe root, from 
which alone tbe piaat can be propagated. These 
I planted in my (iardene at Sydenham, and now 
I have quite a line bank of it. Every (Hjrtbaa 
been made by me to secure furtbcr plants. I 
sent agents throughout Germany with this ohjee', 
but ihey could not find a single plant anywitere 
except solitary specimens in the different 
Botsn'c Gardena of that country and its special 
value seems to have been uore:ognizsd there. 
The Gardenert' ChiunicU has published several 
notices cf this plant, and Mr. Ferguson will find 
full deecriptions in his copies of that journal. I 
took an Indian tea planter down to my ga;den 
to see what I have grown of it, and he 
was so struck by its capabilities that he 
immediately ordered a Wardian case and has 
sent out in it a quantity of root pieces with 
which I supplied him from my own growth to 
plant along the sides of the water courees on bis 
estate. It grows fast and freely, and seems to do 
well in this climate, having witQstood all the 
severe frost we have bad since it was first planted 
by me. It is, perhaps, one of the most valuable 
fodder plants known to us, and I sboolJ recommend 
your planters to follow tbe example of their brother- 
planters of India and grow it extensively on their 
estates." Perhaps you will be able to publish a 
full description of ibis plant from your numbers 
of the Oarderure' Chronicle. I do not feel sure if 
you hava not already quoted them in tbe Tropi- 
cal Agriculturint, but have had no time as yet to 
refer lo the back numbers. You have, however, so 
often written as to the desirability of finding and 
growing new fodder plants, that we suspect 
this item among them has not altogether escaped 
your notice, 
^ 
TEA-SEED OIL. 
It appears that eome of the Ceyloo tet-pUoters 
are makiog an orgin.aed attcupt to obtain a Mle 
for their tea-3eed in the London market. A parcel 
of (even bags of thit article was otferei at tbe 
drug-iales receotly, bat no one seemed to know what 
to do wi'h it, aoj although the broker declared hit 
belief tkit tVie drag was '° a favoarite ineilicioe ia 
CtiiuB," tbe audience remiiaed unmoved. Novertbelesg, 
the tja-se-d might lnvu been wjrth parchaung for 
tbe sake of the bland oil which it contains to the 
exteut of about 33 per c«nt. by weight, ani which 
resembles olive oil in coloar, and somewhat in taste. 
The seeds are about the size of a cherry-stone, tab- 
globolar in sLap'', and of a deep-brown colour. The 
oil would be usel'al for buroing or lubricatiog.— ' 
Chemist and Drujyist. 
— ♦ 
SoDiU5i AS A Plant Food.— In pure chemistry the 
properties of sodium and potassium are very closely 
related, but in the practical application of compouuds 
containing these elements great dlfiferences are ob- 
served. However, some recent researches by A. 
Atterberg {E.ci>t. iStat. lUx., iii., p. 554) show that 
in regard to the food of plants, sodium and potassium, 
though not capable of mutual substitution with equal 
advantage, possess some properties in common. In 
short, sodium compounds may be of considerable 
advantage where potassium in deficient. This obser- 
vation has an important commercial consequence, 
since the large amount of sodium present in many 
of the standard manurial salts can now no loug^t t>e 
