698 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. \Amt 2, 1894. 
tbelraf; the colour had changed to greeniBh yellow 
BB if the l»al bad been slightly steamed. TJie stalks 
were fiexible. Seeing this I determined to roll 
the leaf at onoe, and pat it straight into the 
rapid roller — I took care not to lose any juioe — 
and dried off the moisture after colouring, and 
when the leaf was as dry as is usual with 
withered leaf, I rolled it again, and dried in a 
Birooco as usual. This tea was valued and reported 
88 good as my ordinary tea. It will be seen that 
these 3 maunds of leaf only oooupied a spaoe of 
22 m 19^4 20 from the time it was weighed till the 
time of rolling. And I am hopeful that my system 
may replace the present extensive and ezpen&ivc 
Bppliaooes necessary for " withering." 
For the carriage of " withered" leaf the above 
Byatem will also insure success. The leaf cannot 
get heated or red ;— the chest of 22 m 19 20 inches 
will hold about 240 to 280 pounds of " withered" 
lea', and the leaf will stay uninjured for several 
bours. 
To make the system practicable I have constructed 
B screw press, which will compress 3 maunds or 
BO of leaf into the chest in a few minutes, by the 
power exerted by ona man ; and to keep constant 
pressure on the leaf, I have a chest which is 
fitted internally with coiled springs aggregating a 
pressure of six hundredweights. I shall be very 
iDtereeted to hear whether the above experiments 
have ever hccn tried, and to know whether any 
of youc readers will give the system a fair trial. 
"PRESS." 
PROGRESS IN NORTH BORNEO. 
Kandy, March 12- 
DEiB Sir, — The foUoviing particulars just received 
from Mr. Henry Walker of British Noiili Borneo 
may interest you and your readers : — 
The Coffee Co. in which Messrs J. L. Shand and 
Herbert Anderson are interested is going ahead 
as they are satisfifd with the progress made. They 
have a little difficulty in getting cocoa seed but 
that will soon be obviated as they are now having 
seed bearers of their own. 
There can be no doubt for the future of coco- 
nut planting, for ihey have trees bearing 100 nuts. 
Mr. Walker believes therd is a threat opening for 
coconut plunurs in Borneo, aLd very fine land 
is available. 
Mr. Walker v^ill be very pleased to see Ceylon 
men with capital and promises to show them every 
attention. 
Tne labour question is getting clearer and the 
value of the dollar is holpirg, being only worth 2-3d. 
Tobacco reports are all good, and some crop is 
already in Sandakan for bhipment.— Yours truly, 
W. D. GIBBON, 
Agent, British North Borneo Government. 
A SILO FOR TEA LEAF; IMPROVED 
WITIIEKINO ARRANGEMENTS. 
Deak Sin,—" Press" 's experience is very different 
from anything I have heard of, and if it be 
found that i«af brought into the factory wet, and 
packed into boxes as he suggests will produce as 
good lea as does the leaf properly withered, it 
will certainly be a valuable discovery. 
He may be right, and his suggestion is worthy 
tt ii fair trial, but my experience is that when 
ihe leaf is hard packed into the sacks (all my 
Itaf is transported to the factory in sacks) and 
has been carried from 3 to 5 miles, it feels hot 
ROd 1 have even known it changed to a bronvsa 
or copper colour, whereas if lightly pressed into 
the sacki it is founl in exoellent order after 6 
mill's of. a carri«ge un a cooly'a hrad. 
Any Euag'rstion that will lessen the diflBcuUies 
arising from insufficient withering accoirmodatioo, 
should receive encouragement. A correspondent of 
yours has recently been adding to hie withering 
space by running his withering tats three inches 
apart instead of six inches, with the beet results, 
and when compared with the advanta^ee he has 
gained by the arrangement, at very little cost. 
Those who are pressed for withering accommoda- 
tion should give the system a trial.— Yours truly, 
INVENTION. 
CEYLON TKA IN AMERICA AND 
CONFERENCES. 
Hiralouvab, UaldummuUa, March IStb. 
DEiB " OBbEhVER,"— I notice in your paper of 
12tb a moit interesting statement, viz. that ''In 
the a^ternoc^n Mr. Lipton and Mr. Duplo:;k had a 
confererce with Sir J. Muir and Mr. P. B. 
Buc'hauan " But jou do not give us any details 
of this most important conference. But I fancy 
after settling; the fate of nations, the oonvereaticn 
must have drifted round to tea ; and I do tope 
that Messrs. Lipton and Duplock (as Ceylon 
planters) thoroughly explained to Messrs. Muir and 
Buchanan that the ice a of Ce>lon forming an 
alliance with India to push teas in America 
would not work. Let each country do its own work 
in friendly rivalry. It is very good of Mr. P. B. 
Buchanan to hold little informal raeeiiugs at 
Calcutta, and woul i no doubt help Calcutta. But 
I cannot help tbinkini; that our own Planters' 
Association, with its many ab!e members, is the 
body to discuss and arrange their matters, almost 
better than informal meetinga cf Calcutta agents 
and others.— Yours faithfully, H. H. KIRBY. 
ACME TEA CHESTS. 
Dear SiK, — For the fnformilion of tea planters 
and exportera we annex copy of a letter we have 
received fiom London regarding the above — Yours 
truly, MERCHANT. 
We do not see that these packages should be any 
more successful than their predecessors which have 
proved failures. There is a strong prejudice againt^t 
these packages in the trade. The small local 
dealers who are the ultimate recipients of tee, 
prefer the old lead-lined wood packages, because 
they are easy to open, and wheu emptied they can 
sell the old tea lead linings. These iron chests are 
very difficult to open as they nearly invariably, 
get jammed in transit, and they are useless wheu 
emptifd. It is all very well for the makers to say 
that they will allow so much each for the packages 
when emptied, bnt they cost so much to send them 
to either Glasgow or London that they are not 
worth the carriage. Again, the saving in the cost, 
and the advantages which are supposed to exist, 
are largely mythical, and we are also informed 
that there is a galvanic action set up between the 
iron and tin if the package gets at all damp with 
sea water, which not only causes the rust to come 
through, but imparts a strange odour to the con- 
tents, and renders same almost useless. 
ACME TEA CHESTS. 
March 17. 
DEiB Sir.— With reference to a letter appearing 
in last night's Observer signed " Merchant, 1 
think it but fair to the Syndicate to say that 
wd have tried close on 5,000 cf these chests 
i dunn^^ the lai^o 15 monthe and find that there is a 
