July 2, 1894.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
A Rf.tuhn to Coffee Planting.— We are ia 
receipt of en interesting communication from a 
correspondent who furnishes us with information 
regarding the amount of coffee planting which has 
been quittly going on for some little time past. 
He tells ua that tome planters are supplying their 
tea with Arabian coffee stumps, and that an estate 
near Kegalle has just opened a clearing of 25 
nores. — " Local Times." 
Planting Coffee in Ceylon. — "B.C." confers 
an obligation on the press and publio by the in- 
teresting information he communicates reapeoting 
the planting up of small clearings and fields in 
diffeient districts with our old staple and Liberian 
coffee. We trust the process will go on : in our 
last Directory up to 31st August 1893, we had 
in the island— 2,438 acres of Liberian coffee and 
30,096 of the old Arabian or rather the Abyssinian 
kind. 
Picking Te.v knek-deep in water ia one of the 
pleasant experience occasionally incidental to 
planting life in Assam. The floods in that district 
nave been abnormal this year, and the difficulty 
in picking the leaf must largely affect the yields 
for the present year. This with the present out- 
turn below the average ought to influence the 
market in a favourable degree. It's an ill wind 
that blows no one any good, and short orops in 
Assam will be deoidedly appreciated down here. — 
S. of India Observer. 
Effect of Tea and Coffee on Digestion. — A 
German physiologist, Sohultz-Schullzenstein, sub- 
jected ohopped boiled egg to artifioial digestion with 
hydrochloric aoid, adding in different Cises pure 
water, tea, and oft'ee. The percentage of albumen 
digested by me pure acid was 94, with the water 
92, with the tea, 66, and with the ooffae 61. Thus 
the addition of pure water affa;ted the digestion 
little, but the tea and coffee lessaned it very 
materially. In this experiment the egg wa3 choppid 
into millimeter eubas. In ti previous trial, in which 
the egg was not chopped bo fine, the presence of 
tea and coif ae was even more unfavourable. — Zeits- 
chrift fur physiological Chemie. 
The Tele Tomato in Australia. — It is 
of interest to fiad that the Australian Colonies 
are indebted to Ceyloa for the addition of thia 
UBeful addition to their ftuit aud food supply and 
primarily to that most obliging of Commanders, 
Capt. Murray, of the P. & 0. Coy.'s s.s. " Shan- 
non", by whom thu first two p'ants were taken over. 
Mr. J. H. Maiden, Consulting Botanist in New 
South Wales, writou as follows : — 
'The Tree Tomato in Australia.— la the year 1834, 
Captain Murray, of the P. & O.'s B..&1.S. v Shannon," 
brought from Ceylon, in a 4-inch pot, a pi »ut, about 4 
or 5 iachea high, of tha tree toma o, which ha 1 been 
attracting attention in Ceylon at the time. It ia be- 
lieved that thia plant was one of the 1881 sowings by 
Dr. Trimea, from seed obtaine* from Jamaica as above 
mentioued, and th ivfore Captain Shannon's plant 
and the Ueylon plai.ta were acclimatised together. 
Tho plant was presented to Mr. W. A. B. Greave 1 , 
oi Bondi, and in eighteen mouths it fruited. In 1886 
Mr. Gn aves exhibited the fruit at a show of the New 
Souih Wales Agricultural Society and was awarded a 
special prize for it. The newspapers and agricultural 
journals to.jk tlie mattt r up, and Mr. Greaves informs 
uie that he, in reply to requests, distributed seeds 
and plants ia all tnc colonic:), including the ?arious 
botanic gardeus. He has obtaiueJ large crops from 
tree tomatoes ever since 1886. Captain Shauuon was 
also kind enough to bring a plant the following sea- 
son to Mr. E. 0. Merewetlier, also of Bondi, but 1 
do not know to what extoat plants were propagated 
from this. Anyhow, the tree tomato is thoroughly 
well acclimatised in Australia in foar coloniea, aud 
no difficulty need be experience! by anyoue who wants 
pUnts of it.— The Agriw&twal Ganeite, 
Multiplied and Varied Products. — la 
no district in the island, perhaps, is "planting" at 
present bo interesting, because of the variety of 
produots cultivated, as in North Matale. It is, 
of course, specially a cacao distriot ; but there also 
may be seen the two kinds of coffee — Arabian 
and Libsrian — in full crop, while, of course, tea 
is creeping on to be the leading staple here as 
everywhere else. There are minor products ; for 
it would be difficult to say what will not grow 
in tha genial climate and good soil of the distriot. 
We have no authority from resident planters to 
say so; but we should fancy Matale and some 
parts of Uva to ba pre-aminently the districts 
now where young men oan best be taught all 
about " tropical products" ia preparation for work 
in East or Central Africa or other sub-tropioal 
lands. 
" Agricultural Land Offered on Long 
Lease in Madagascar." — Such is the heading of an 
eiitoiial in the latest Madagascar News which 
opens as follows : — 
Mauritius has for the last quarter-of-a-eentury 
foraeen that Madagascar must eventually, by one 
means or another, become the field of enterprise for 
the rapid growing surplus population of that mag- 
nificent little island, whese fertility caused her to be 
rightly described as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, 
For many a year have Mauritius waited for the 
Malagasy Government to say " come over and help 
us " to develop the vast natural resources of Mada- 
gascar. But somehow or other, for one reason or 
another, the invitation has been long delayed. 
However, it has beoome at last, and in a most deair- 
rable form. Agricultural land to an extent almost 
equal in size to one-third cf Mauritius has been 
based to the Hon'ble John L. Waller, lately United 
Stitea Cunsul in Madagascar aud who is a gentle- 
man with many close friendships with Mauritians. 
Mr. Waller, therefore, desired to make known to his 
Mauritian friends aud acquaintances that is to Mau- 
ritius be will give the opportunity of priority of 
selection of agricultural hoUiingp, "o mait^r ho v sru&Tl 
or how large. The land is mosi a ivautageously si- 
tu ited in the District of Fort Dauphin, on the 
South-oa-t coast of Madagascar. 
Further on, our articles in the Ceylon Observer on 
" opanings in East and South Africa" are noticed 
and we are advised for the benefit of emigrant 
planters, that — 
Madagascar has a climate practically tha same as 
Ea3t Africa, and her soil is far superior, beiog maoh 
batter watere 1 ; hut the superior advautagea do uot 
end with soil, they extend to situation. The loca- 
tion of the land-grant is practically on the coost, and 
but a very few miles from a goo J Port, which mail- 
Btoimers of very lurge tonnage pass, outward or 
homewards, and we believe, will call every fortui^ht. 
Consequently, tha carriage to port would be per- 
formed by the farmer's or planter's cattle or horaea. 
But thero ia even another advantage. Thus a 
farmer or planter leasing land on this laud-grant 
would, without the inoonvenience of finding pur- 
chase-money be paying rent, for virgin soil, even in 
the eleventh and subsequent years, less than one- 
half of what be would be paying in interest, even 
at the low rate of 5 per cent for soil needing high 
manuring in Ceylon. 
There is a groat deal of truth in thia ; but then Bri- 
tish planters like to be under British Government. 
Madagascar is now regarded aa to all intents 
and purposes a French Protectorate; and if eo, we 
fear it would not be long before trouble was 
given to British planters who had developed 
valuable properties in that island. Wa shall be 
interested in watohing how tho American Consul 
gets on with his land-grant or leaso. The quss- 
tion of labour for planters is one not so easily 
colve.l in Madagascar as in East or CeD'.ral Africa. 
