March i, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
A Cbylon Plaittbb in Selakoob, — Mr. T. Gibson 
has come h^re to take over the management of 
Messrs. Huttenbach's coSee estates. A ocnsider- 
able extension of the area now under cultivation 
will be made. The firm intends to purchase and 
oure coffee at Klang. The machinery for the 
purpose has just airived, and Mr. Gibson will also 
manage that part of the business. — Straits Budget. 
E.UBBER IN India. — The only successful 
plantation of any size in India, says Consul General 
Morrell of Calcutta, is in the Durrany district of 
tbe Province of Assam. Its area is now 1,5.38 
acres and the trees are growing luxuriantly. Since 
it is not thought fo be wise to tap the trees 
before they are twenty-five years old, no estimate 
Gin as yet be made as to what the product will 
be. As it is said that an amount varying from 
40 to 80 pounds of rubber has been taken from 
a forest tree yearly without injury, there is en 
opportunity for everyone to make his own cal- 
culation as to the outcome of the government 
experiments. 
HuBBER Trees as Shade for Cacao, — Our 
friends of the Indiaruhher Journal and others in- 
terested in extending the cultivation of rubber- 
yielding trees will not be pleased at the latest 
news from our planting districts where oeata rubber 
trees have been growing along with cacao and 
have been utilised as shade for the latter. Both 
in the Dumbara and Matale districts, we learn, it 
has been decided that the ceara does harm rather 
than good to the cacao, and the command has 
gone forth to out down the former. This is es- 
peoially the case in Dumbara. However, there are 
satisfactory reports as to the progress of Para and 
Oastiiloa rubb3rs in our Sabaragamuwa and Wes- 
tern Provinces, and we hope the cultivation of 
these will yet prove remunerative. 
Tea Tabloids. —We cannot in honesty say 
that the cup of tea infused from samples of 
the tabloids (manufactured by Messrs. Burroughs, 
Welcome & Co. at the instance of Mr. John 
Kogers formerly of the Kelani Valley) can be 
said to compensate for the cup made from the 
article as turned out by the estate factory. The 
delicate aroma and refreshing taste were absent 
at any rate in anything like the same degree 
as that to which we are accustomed. Never- 
theless, we were assuredly drinking tea and tea 
that would be considered by no means bad in 
the olden days when all Ceylon tea-drinkers had 
to depend on the 5-oatty tea boxes imported 
from Hongkong and sold for RIO each — or 2 
rupees (is) per lb. ! There can be no doubt too 
of the convenience of these tabloids for many 
purposes — for travellers for instance — -and the 
great chemists who have taken their prepara- 
tion in hand, are quite capable of making them 
of all degrees of strength, including a quality 
guaranteed to contain as litt'e of tannin as the 
mildest (weakest) of China teas. This would 
suit the old women (male and female) who may 
have been frightened by certain medical dicta 
about the danger of drinking strong tea, or tea 
at all in fact. Even the late Sir Andrew Clarke, 
in a moment of weakness was guilty of some 
such heresy, or at any rate of exalting China at 
the expense of Ceylon and Indian tea. We 
showed him when in London how wrong he wus, 
at least in not distinguishing between delicate 
and s'rong Ceylon teas and w s able indeed to 
rt-mind him of his first cup of Ceylon tea which 
was drunk at tln' house of Major l''orljes (of the 
Scottish Ceylon Te:i Co ) which he. Sir Andrew 
at the time, declared to be the most wholesome 
refeshing cnp of tea he had ever drunk. 
The Coming CocoNur Crop is expected to be 
snort owing to the unuaually drv weather for some 
time past. We hear that Mr. J. D. Vanderstraa- 
tens enterprise in leasing and then improving 
ine cultivation of and manuring Coconut gardens, is 
navmg a great influence on the natives in the 
Wegombo district who are following his example very 
reely, in utilismg ashes and poonao for their palms. 
IHE Outlook for Coffee.— The American 
(rrocer takes a sanguine view (see Tropical Agri- 
cuttunst) of the crop prospects, anticipating 13A 
million bags for 1894-95 againsb actual requirements 
for the world of only 11 million bags I We do not 
believe m such estimates. True, coffee culture has 
been greatly extended in Mexico and Central 
America ; but when we find " New Zealand " and 
' Iransvaal " dragged in as prospective coffee pro- 
ducers, we are not inclined to think much of the 
anticipations put before us. 
The Jamaica Plum.— The Jamaica plum or tree 
tomato {Cyplwmandea hetacea) is said to be an 
excellent fruit, having a beneficial influence on the 
hver, it can be eaten as a dessert fruit out into 
two_, or it may be cooked like an ordinary tomato. 
It 18 exceedingly well adapted for export, as the 
stem 18 tough, and will keep perfectly for a month 
after picking. The cultivation of this fruit may be 
taken up in the higher elevations, as it is likely 
to grow well at from 2,000 to 5,000 feet. The plant 
IS an erect shrub. Seed'ings will bear fruit in from 
one or two years ; cuttings in less than a year. It 
IS reported that tbe seed has been distributed by 
the Jamaica Botanic Gardens to the hills of India.— 
Madras Mail. 
The Growth and Gifts of the Banana (a 
Thopical Lily.)— "Banana cultivation in Jamaica" is 
mafruotivplv sketched by Mr. Allen Erie in the Carut- 
dian Magaziw for November. The banana is de"- 
cribed as " perhaps the most popular and most widely 
consumed fruit grown ou the face of the earth." Tbe 
extent of the banana trade is suggested by the f»ot 
that in 1892 the United States imported 13,000,000 
hunches. The banana, it appears, belooga to the 'lily 
firaily, find is a developed, tropical lily, from which, 
after ages of development and growth, the seeds have 
been eliminated and the fruit greatly expanded. The 
banana plant being seedless, is propagated by auokers 
equirui^ about eleven months for the tree to get its 
g<owfh and the fruit to mature. It is very prolifio— 
that is, the rellow variety-forty plants c*n be grown in 
a thniisan 1 square feet, which will bear 6,000 pounds of 
fruit annually and it is pos.sible to grow aa much sa 
175,000 pounds of bananas snnually on a single acre of 
ground. The banana plant has a s f t stalk, is from 10 
to 18 fet t 1 height. Bach plant bears only one bunch 
of fruit which hangs with the "hands" curving ap- 
w^rJ, Tbe desoription of the starting of a new plan- 
tation may be thus condensed :— The dense tropical 
growths of bush, trees and creeoers are first ont down 
and when these bavo sufficiently dried, fire is set in 
several places on tbe windward side. A few hours of 
cracking flame, and the field is covered with a pall of 
gray ashes, and with black tree trunks. The ground is 
ploughed. The banana sprouts or suckeri, are then set 
in the rich blaok soil. The suckers look like clumay 
clubs from one foot to four feet long and from two to 
five inches in diameter. In eight or nine months after 
the planting, the plants will have their plumes, Is feel 
high, sheltering bnnohes of full fruit whioh is ready to 
cut in two or three months thereafter. Each three or 
four months anew set is allowed tooome on to take the 
plsca of the older ones as they inature their fruit and 
are cut down. By this plan three or four crops of 190 
te 225 bnncbeseacb, or 570 to 9l)() bunches per acre 
perannum can ba obtaired ; and by pUnting fitliis Oi e 
sacooediuf,' mi uths, the fiuit is resdy for export the 
year around. A plantation requires lo be rc-pUuted 
with new shoots about once iu uvery five year* in order 
to maintain the bightst qua ity of the fruit. 
