624 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. TMarch i, 1894; 
ravines or where there is plenty of rain; in the 
hot dry months experienced in Uv», thia kind 
does not thrives except in ravinee. I have heard 
of some Australian grass, but forget the name. 
Guinea grass is not thought to be good (or milch 
cows. Any hints a9 to the best mode of keeping 
cattle in good condition and securing good rich 
milk, will much oblige. 
Also about Piga ; what is the beet food for them, 
both Rreen and dry ? What is the most hardly 
breed? As a constant reader of the Tropical Agri- 
culturist, I have already received muoh valuable 
information from it. 
As regards Fruit, has anyone ever tried orjatalizing 
it in Ceylon ; would the climate at 5 000 feet even 
bengainstit? What is the procesa of crystalizing ? 
—Yours faithfully, AGRICIDLTURIST. 
[We have been favoued with the following opinions 
from a good authority on some of the questions 
asked :— 
"In my opiuioo there is no better grass tban Fa»palum 
co'rtjugatum for the elevation and locality of vour corres- 
pondent. It is a nativn of Brazil and Wei-t Indies 
bat has become caturai'zed in matiy places in Ceylon. 
It grows well on even poor patana and cattle eat it 
greedily. It otands drought welt and epre^oK rapidly. 
"Biomus Scliraderi. — Prairie eraes is anoiher excellent 
Urass for au elev*tion of 5,000 ft. but it requires gooJ 
land and Kood cultivatioa uuder which ci'uditions it 
Btands drought we''. Seeds of tliis can be obtHined of 
any naraeryman either in Australia or England. Sfe la 
ot the Paspalum 1 believe can be obtuined from the 
Hoyal Gar ieDD, Peraiieniya or no doubt roots cuuld be 
got from any upounlry planter who bas estibliabed 
it, or ia limited quaaities trom the Hakgalla Gardens. 
I know of one plaoler who got 2,000 rco'.s abont 
three years ago who has now enough to plaut 10 
or 12, or ev^n more acres. 
" I am surprised to learn that Guinea grass is not 
considered good for milch cows. My experience of it 
in the West Indies is that it is excellent, but 5,000 fi. 
elevation in Ceylon is rather toa high for it to thrive 
except CD very good land. 
"With regard to pigs I dou't think there i* any 
better than the Berkehiru for this climate 
and there is nothing better than boiled lodian 
corn and rice for fattening them. For store pigs 
any garden refuse such as cabbage leaves, potito 
peelings, turuip top to be chopped up and bailed 
and mixed with a little coconut poonao will be 
foand to suit them and keep them in goud 
condition." 
Who can tell us about the " crystalizing of 
fruit " in Ceylon ? There is no reason why a n 
industry should not be established.— Ed T.4.] 
LOW PRICES AND INCREASED SUPPLY. 
Upcountry, Jan. 29, 
Dkab Sir, — If you have not seen the following 
extract from the " Scramble for Gold "m thq Nine- 
teenth Century for Jan., it may be of interest to 
me, it appears, to represent our poeitioa, exactly, 
with regard to tea : — 
"The tendency of lower prices in m^ny if not 
in most oases is to increase supply rather than to 
diminish it, because of the efforts producers made 
to cheapen production by going into it on a larger 
Boale." AN OLD COFFEE STUMP. 
BLENDING TEA IN BOND. 
Deae Sie, — In the Ceylon Observer of December 
7th I Tdad with iuterurt an article on the above 
enbject, and very mocb hop ; the Planters' Association 
will not be led away wi h what sunndi a very 
tempting, offer on the part of Mr. Lipton's agent — 
that Mr. L'ptun has decided to posh Ceylon tea in 
Australia. Koowing the blends Mr. Lipton .'^ells 
in England and Ireland I hope the day will never 
come when Mr. Lipton c°n print on thtKO packeis — 
Packed in Ceylcn." 
In the event of not being allowed to blend in bond. 
Mr. Lipton threatens to send out from Loudon to 
Australia some of his Blendt, aome of which ate aaid 
to contain a certain jtortion of China. (Yea — ' am very 
ci'tain come cf them do contain a certain por- 
tion.) By the time Mr. Lipton pays freiKbt 
from Obiua to Lindoti and btck to Atutralia. 
I am alraid he won't fiud himself in a good poeitioa 
to compete with ticm on the spot wbo impr<rt di'«-ct 
from China and Cetlon and put op Ceylon tea with 
a ctrtain portion of China io packets, and strange to 
Bay xome of the firms in Australia Bell this mixture aa 
a Ceylon Blend ; others even go lo far as to rell it 
aa pnre Ceylon tea. It is a great mistake to think 
Loudon firms are the only firms who know bow to take 
the public in. R. V. WEBSTEK. 
[Mr. Webster can scarcely be eaid to be a dis- 
interented party, and he is ignorant of the fact that 
the choice ot a deput for Mr. Lipton's blending 
buRinesa for Australia ard the East, lies between 
Colombo and Calcutta.— Ed. T.A.] 
THE TK.V ENTERI'Rl.^E IN CRYLOX— ITS 
JJiFFlCL'LTIfc; S AND 1J.\N G EKS— .\N I» 
SCIENTIFIC E.XI'liKTS. 
Peradeniya, Feb. 1. 
Di£AE Sib,— Your leader of yesterday on the sub- 
ject of Tea and its Enimies is a most oberrii g eign 
of -the shrewd eye some at least of the many 
engaged "in Tea" have to possibilitiea of improve- 
ment. It is because I believe the planters are 
men of enterprise that I write to heartily endorse 
your euggesiion of bringing expert opmion to bear 
on the many difficulties and dangers which beset 
Tea." 
In England this principle has been steadily ig- 
nore], except by brewers and perhaps a few others, 
with the result that Continental nations, especially 
Germany, can now vie or more than vie with 
England in many manufactures. 
The ignorant may imagine that the *, trade mark" 
" made in Germany" is only indicative of highly 
coloured prints or loosely-jointed tin British Eoldiers : 
but to all workers and students in Chemical or Physi- 
cal Laboratories — in short to all whose task it is to 
conduct exact and cartful experiments— ihe error of 
that belief is only too well known. England has pro> 
duoed many brilliant chemists : Priesile}', Davy. 
Faraday; yet it cannot make their tools, neither 
apparatus oor pure chemicals. It has reared Bota- 
taiiists and Zoologists of hrst rank: Darwin, Owen, 
Huxley, yet it must stnd to Germany for their 
microscopes. Instance might be piled on instance ; 
but enough has been eaid to show that in those 
operations requiting particular skill Germany is 
gradually forging ahead. The reasons are doubtless 
many, and first in the opinion of one who has lived 
amoag the Getmans and likes them, is the national 
character of sttady application to the matter in 
hand ; but by no means least among the many 
reasons is the attcntisn to details, both in their 
own and as those who have worked in their research 
laboratories sometimes find, ' their neighbour's 
method and subject of work. As a result of thia 
in the Fatherland every modern manufactory has for 
its analyist a \ery well-trained and often brilliant 
scientist— in England little boys of 12 or 14 are often 
employed in large factories because " they only 
have lo arid one liquid to another till 2 colouis — 
those of the resulting liquid and of a standard 
solution — are identija'." No wonder aniline 
dyes are now all but entirely made iu Germany I 
England is to be pitied rather than blamed — 
tho became involved in the ri.n .issaLce of science 
SO years tgoacdto her own tutprise — and often 
incredulity — proQuced scientists of word-wide and 
world-long teputalion ; biit her rank and file bud 
