March i, .894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
careful to destroy all the weevils and weevil grubs 
that they can find, but our comparative immunity 
from thij pest i^ probably due chiefly to most of the 
weevils being devoured by insectivorous aninials be- 
fore they have time to breed ; and as cultivation is 
extended, we must expect the number of insecti- 
vorous animals to decrease, bee i use of the clearing 
of the jangles in which they find cover. Tea plan's 
do not seem to be injured by chafer grubs, but 
latterly much da-iiage was done by these insects 
on some coffee estates, and the most probable cause 
of their increase was the banishment, by the ex- 
tensive clearing of jungle, of wild cats and other 
natural enemies of the chafer beetles. Wit' out 
our wishing to raise any nee iless alarm, it therefore 
behoves coconut planters in this country not to be 
over-confident that they will always have the com- 
parative immunity from the red weevil as the same 
have bad in the past. The coconut weevil, as they 
said in o r last issue, is not to be confounded with 
the rhinoceros beetle, which, although it does do 
some injury to cocon'it trees, is nevertheless a com- 
paratively harmless enemy and one comparatively 
ea ily combated. The weevils {RyncaphoraJ are one 
of the most numerous families of the Coleopfera ; 
they are all phytophagous, and they are very des- 
tructive to vegetation, not so much bscause of tl^eir 
appearing in vast numbers, as caterpillars, apides 
and locusts do, as by reason of their attacking 
plants in a vital part, so as to kill them, or in the 
seed, and thereby preventing their propagation. One 
very minut* weevil feeds in its larval tate in the 
seed ' f the kitul palm, and although the ground 
under a kitul tree may be thickly strewn with seeds, 
yei it is difficult sometimes to find one without a 
teevil or weevil grub in it, and many of the seeds 
contain several of the insects. 
Besides the coconut weevil, coconut trees in some 
of the islands of the West Indies appear, from ►tate- 
nients which we ba\e read from time to time in 
the newspapers, to be affected by a fatal fungoid 
blight, but we cannot name any publication in which 
information in this point can be found. In this 
country trees in apparent health are sometimes 
broken off by the wind, and when the broken part 
of tlie stem is examined, nearly all the wood at that 
place is found to be decayed. This is not an in- 
fectious disease, and it is generally believed to be 
caused by the roots of the tree getting down to an 
unhealthy subsoil. There does not seem to be any 
known remedy for this disease, not would a remedy 
for it be of much practical use if one were known, 
because the first intimation of the disease is usuilly 
•he fall of the tree. 
There is not apparent any present indication of 
the coconut plantations of this island being likely 
to be affecte 1 hy any serious I'light, but in view of 
whai has bai^pencd in other coconut-growing co .n- 
tries, it is not wise to be over-confident of a similar 
calamity never being possible here. The tea planters 
are continually being warned regarding the impru- 
dence of depending too exclusively on a single pro- 
duct, but nobody seean to think it necessary to 
give a similar caution to the coconut planters ; 
and yet, supposing the chances of disaster to be 
equal in both cases, the warning is more needed 
ill the case of coconuts than in that of tea, be- 
cause the coconut plantations cover a larger extent 
of ground than ihe tea plantations, and a failure 
of the former would a much greater calamity 
to the permanent population of this island than a 
fftilure of the latter would be. The late Mr. George 
Stuart, the founder of the firm of Messrs George 
Stuart & Co., used to say, " I always hang an 
anchor out to windward," meaning that he never 
trusted entirely to a single investment, and the re- 
sult of his following that policy proved its pru- 
dei.co. 
As regards the yield and cultivation of the palm 
oil tree (Klais (juineenam), there in not likely to be 
any reliable information available, for although 
about a million hundredweigh s of palm oil are 
annually imported into the United Kingdom (chiefiy 
from Lagos, which is the centre of palm • il trade) 
yet it seems to be all the prod ;je of trees growing 
wild in the African jungles, and the tree, though 
not unfrequently planted here for ornament does 
not seem to be anywhere cultivated as a commercial 
product. The circumstance of the tree growing wild 
in the African jungles need not, however, prevent 
its being profitably cultivated here, for cinchona 
grows wild in the jung'es of South America, and 
that did not prevent it^i being a profitable product 
here until the price of it b came unremuneiative bv 
reason of over-production. The following statistics 
of the vegetable oils imported into the United King- 
dom an i exported from it in 1882 are taken from a 
table in the Encydop'fdia Britannica, Vol. XVII.. 
p. 745, and they show the importance of palm oil in 
British commerce in comparison with otl er vegetable 
oils : — 
Ijiporis. 
Quantities. 
Value. 
Castor 
163,970 cwts 
£264,551 
Coconut 
138,782 cwts 
210,054 
Olive 
23,450 tuns 
974,154 
Palm 
813,870 cwts 
1,240,836 
Seed 
U,507 tuns 
4i!6,807 
Exports. 
Quantities. 
Value. 
Castor 
24,288 cwts 
£ 40,057 
Coconut 
134,368 cwts 
205,788 
Olive 
3,668 tuns 
166,698 
Talm 
423,162 cwts 
642,20 i 
Seed 
1,162 tuns 
37,279 
In the 
beer and wine trades a tun is 
a measure 
of cap.acity, but a tun of oil seems to be 20 bun- 
dredvvfights ; and of the five kinds of oil enumerated 
in the foregoing table of Imports, it will be seen 
that the quantity of palm oil is the greatest and 
that of coconut oil the least. But besides the palm 
oil, which is obtained from the fibrou- husk of he 
fruit, th' re is also a large importation into the 
United Kingdom of palm kernels, which are ground 
and made imo palm nut oil and palm nut oilcake, 
and the oilcake is said to be superior to any other 
for feeding cattle. For the reason already men- 
tioned, the average annual yield of a palm oil tree 
is probably not yet known, but the fruits are said 
to yield a larger \ ercentage of oil than can be ob- 
tained from olives From these facts it will be 
seen that Eheis fluineensis is not the useless tree 
that many here tuppose it is, and it would un- 
doubtedly have given in this country a much more 
profitable result than has been obtained from the 
other West African product, Liberian coffee, had it 
received the same attention with which Liberian 
coffee was at one time favoured. — Catholic Messenger. 
TEA NOTES FROM LONDON. 
LoNDO.v, Feb. 2. 
THE FINEST TEA EVER IMPORTED FROM CEYLON. 
A iMei from Meeers. Anderson Brothera in- 
formed me that they had at their office tempo- 
rarily what Meaars. Gow, Wilson, & Stanton had 
pronoiinoed to be the finest tea they had ever 
Been imported from Ceylon. On my oalliog in 
reapon.se to that letter this lea was obligingly shown 
to me. It certainly was the most astonishing tea, 
both in appearance and fragrance. There were two 
lots of one pound each only. One of theae was 
identical in quality and appearance with tho 
" Golden Tip ' not long back sold for £^5 Hin 
lb at the publi! auction ta the Masnwrti e Ti.-i 
proprietord. But the second, as to which sujti 
oxperta as Messrs. Gow, Wilson, A- Stanton 
had passed such eulogy, far 8urpafs:d the firs', 
in all oharaotetistica. It waa almost ai fine ati 
