S66 
THE^TROPIGAL AGRICULTURIST |Fes. i, 18^4. 
Hach WBB tbe buildiog in wbicli the weetipg took 
place today (Jan. 19tb), aud wbvre the ectiolara wUI 
beijiii woik lu eoruemou Muuday next. Much baubetin 
accon^plisbed and Mr. {lumau and bis aa^istauts de- 
eetve great credit tot whac has beeu dune. More, of 
oouroe. rt)'u»in« and ii wi" be some time before every- 
tbing i» uoupleLe; wb>le eveutually tbe (laeskiou of 
seouriDg ^anottitr buiidiug will t.ave to be gone in 
tu, aa ibe preeenc building;! are only lu ended to be 
temporary. For ibe present, bowever, tbey will do very 
Wdlb It IB time, tbuugb, to get on to 
VARIOUS AtiRlGULT URAL NOTES. 
Tea and its Enemies. — We call attention 
to tbe planter's letter on " Mosquito Bligbt ' — tbe 
very troublesome pest sometimes affeoting Ceyiou 
tea, as it bo oiiea does tbat of India. Tbe call for 
united aciion and even special legislation, is by no 
means unv^ratranted. 
Well Worked Tea would give an easy 
average of 1,000 lb per acre in S. \Vynaad, writas 
. Mr. A. 0, (inffin to tbe iV/ii/irj Neics. " It is pa/- 
KceUence tbe dietriot for lea, it (be labour 
question can be satisfactorily arranged— and, this 
being so, I would most cenainly recommend tea 
oapiiaiisiB 10 give the district ibeir attention." 
rLANTiNG IN NoRTH BoENEo — in coffes and 
tobacco especially— is beginning to attract a great 
deal of attention in the borne press, and we 
should not be surprieed to see a good deal more 
of British capital flow in that direction. There 
ia a settled GoTernmeni, fair amount of labour 
and easy transport; and coffee is going to be 
a scarce product, 
The Pbeservation of Wood.— In a communication 
to the Paris Academy of Sciences on the preser- 
vation of wood from larvcu, M, E. Mer says tbat the 
sapwood is attacked because it contains starch, and 
the hard wood is presumably free from attack 
because it has ceased to contain starch. He pro- 
poies to ring the trunk of the tree at the upper 
pari in spring, and suppress all buds, the idea 
being thai tbe alburnum will thus be cleared of 
starch by the autumn, ^nd the trees may be felled as 
soon as the leaver begin to fall. It is suggested tbat 
carpenters and joiners will be able, i( this practice 
is pursued, to ubc a ponion, or neatly all, of the 
sapwood. There are, however, other reasjna. why 
sapwood should not be used except for the very 
commonest purposes ; but the experiment is worta 
trying, if one knew the best age ot the tree. — Public 
Opinion. 
Tea Prospects are improving and it 
looks as if the bottom price were peached 
recently when the local markets ^average 
was only 34 cents. Beuter now reports a firm 
market at home and we trust tbe improvement 
will continue. As regards the current year's 
exports, il Auatralasia takes 10 million lb., and 
all other countries outside the United Kingdom 
5 million,— which it is not unreasonable to 
anticipate,— we might reckon on the total exports 
to tbe mother country from Ceylon in 1894 exceeding 
those for 1893 by only a very few, perbaps 2 or 
3 million lb. — Since writing the above, we find oor- 
rpboration of our estimatBS in this mail's Report 
from Messrs. Forbes & Walker who estimate as, 
we did, about 9Q million lb. as the total for Ceylon 
ejiports in 1894, .ot which 78 may go to the United 
Eing-iom — ihat ia about 2^ million lb. more than 
in 1893. 
Bonding Tea foBi Blends and Differential 
Pdiies. — The Planners' , Apsooiatipn and Mr. 
flarcouri akrine's letters elsewhere raise some most 
difficult . questions j our last suggestion- and one 
that should meet the immediate difiapuity — is 
to enter into a separate ar^aogement with the 
TtavauQore NatiTe ywte for its teas (0 be admitted 
freely to tbe Colombo markets. Treat Travaocofe 
in tact in every respect as an outlying dieUiot 
of Oeylon which it virtually ie. but this, after 
all, can only be a temporary expedient ; (or tbe 
interests ol tbe port o( Colombo — as a great 
Otntral Trade Depot (or tbe Eaet and South — 
cannot for long be subordinated to the mainte- 
nance of these import duties on tea and bark. 
When Ceylon tea has been twice rejected on ilB 
own merits by tbe Melbourne Cuelome and sent 
back to Colombo, v e are scarcely in a position to 
boast of (he name of " pure Ceylon tea." le it 
not a fact tbat our tea is all sold now 
whether in the l^oodon, Australian or American 
market, entirely on its merits ?— In respect of Mr. 
8krii:c's letters, there is no question that a very 
important debate can be raised in tbe Uouee of 
Commons as to the effect on Indian and Ueylon 
teas versia Chins, o( tbe official interference with 
tbe rupee ; aud we see no reason why this dis- 
cussion should not be raised on a United Kritieh 
Planters' Petition ? It ttould be most interesting 
to bear what Mr. Gladstone would say on tbe 
question of the Indian Qovernment eitablinhiny a 
differential position in favour of China and JacatMt I 
Planting in the Negombo District.— We 
call attention to tbe interesting notes on last year's 
experience placed at our service by a planter in tbe 
Negombo dietriot (see page >?49). Poor old oiona- 
men- once the Queen of Ceylon Prodocts and 
almost the only one whose original habitat is with 
us — has fallen bo low that even tbe villsgere 
have given up cultivating it, or rather have rooted 
it out, — "why cumbereth it the ground," — and its 
production is now almost entirely confined to the 
regular plant ations. What has been lost in oinoa- 
mon, has, however, been more than gained io the 
popular and projperous coconut palm ; while it 
is of special interest to learn of euccecsful experi- 
ments with cacao in the Negombo district and o( 
tbe growth of pepper. This last is a pcoduot which 
every Assistant Agent ought to try 10 push among 
his headmen and villagers. In tbe time of the Dutch. 
Ceylon was considered of more importance as a 
producer of pepper, than even ot oofifee ; and 
in tbe Kegalla district with both Bides of the 
Eelani river to the coast were the best pepper 
growers. Why ehonid tbey not be revived ? 
Curious Botanical Facts (?) in " Foul 
Play." — A correspondent writes : — " I have been 
reading ' Foul Play,' by Charles Beade and Dion 
Boucicault ; and have been greatly amused with 
the botanical absurdities committed by tbe writers 
in their description of the resources of ' Godsend 
Island ' in the Pacific, The narrative altogether 
reminds one forcibly of tbat old friend of our 
youth, ' The Swiss Family Kobiuaon,' but surpaeses 
the latter in eome respeote. Fancy a mattress 
made of plantain leaves, sewn together with thread 
from the same tree I (The plantains, by the way, 
are described as ' long yellow pods, with red 
specks, something like a very large banana ! ') 
Plantain leaves are also used for walls to a house! 
Then we are told that the hero ' gathered a few 
ooooa nuts Isic] tbat had burst out of their ripe 
pods and fallen to the ground ' I Again we read 
of ' cocoa pods ' each as big as a large pumpkin ' 
(coconuts are evidently meant), Tbe heroine is 
naturally 'very proud of some pods she bad 
found with nutmegs inside them ' ; and this same 
young lady, after a severe illness, when too weak 
to walk, makes a rope of coconut fibre (how she 
got the latter is not said) forty yards long; and 
this rope the hero takes in his teeth, climbs a 
coconut palm eighty feet high, and hauls up a 
heavy spar, all by himself I It is altogether (00 
fonny." 
