l82 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Sept i, 1894. 
No. XI. 
3,000 TO 6,000 FEET. 
Deab Sib, — My system is: — Tip, leaving fish, two 
whole leaves and a ehoulder, about a quarter of 
the leaf. Then pluck, leaving fish and one leaf 
right on to a month before pruning. I strongly 
object to leaving fish and half a leaf early in the 
life of the flush. It may give quantity. But my 
experience is that it seriously affects the quality, 
and I think it also injures the bush, is it that 
the leaf cut in two was required by the bush to 
digest the plant food taken up from the soil and 
sent baok through the bark to feed the roots ? 
Will a more learned man than I am say ? 
When coffee was torn out to make way for tea, 
all must have remarked how bare of feeding 
rootlets the large roots were. The trees had been 
short of leaves for many a day. WHOLE-LEAF. 
THE PROSPECTS BEFORE OUR 
" CREEPERS." 
[ENGLISH PAPEBS REQUESTED TO C0I>Y.] 
Deab Sib, — I have heard it contended that in 
getting out young meD, who pay long premiums, 
and £10 to £12 103 stg. per mensem, for board 
which may oost R60, the favor is conferred by 
those in this import trade. I thiok the following 
advertisements culled from the last week's papers, 
are conclusive of the opposite : — 
1st. A Company paying 25 and 30 per cent 
dividends advertise for an assistant on R100 per 
mensem. Supply so exceeds demand, that busi- 
ness men are not ashamed to offer suoh a pittanoe ; 
yet the last holder of the post lost his tiealth and 
his predeoessor Ids life in the service. 
2nd. Another billet is offered, in the same 
feverish distriot, with the noble salary of R70 per 
mensem. 
3rd. Wanted an experienced European assistant 
salary R100 per mensem. [So that after gaining 
experience, £5 10s is what a " Creeper" may ejpeot 
— one quarter of what he pays monthly for pre- 
mium and board 1] 
4. "Wanted an experienced assistant, salary 
R150 per mensem. No creeper need apply." 
5. There is a well authenticated report current 
that thirty-seven creepers applied for one small 
billet lately, and 
6. I know that over a hundred Ceylon men applied 
for a billet with a small salary in another Colony. 
I think your Overland issue should contain this, 
with the request that all home papers should copy 
and warn parents against creeper trappers who 
are beooming more and more numerous— the 
notorious suooess of a few stimulating the greed 
of many,— Yours, " OBSERVER." 
" Ob:ebveb" may be sure that his letter will be 
prominently inserted in our Tropical Agriculturist; for 
there can be no doubt that its warning is called 
for, so far as employment and openings in Ceylon 
are concerned. The r 1 ly qualification we would 
offer on our correspond .ut's position is with refer- 
ence to the value of a training in Ceylon with 
the special view of finding a career elsewhere— in 
North Borneo, the Straits, Java or British Central 
Africa. Young men who lay their plans after 
this fashion may be exempted from the warning ; 
but then they ought to see their way to an opening 
before coming out here, either through having 
capital to take up land, or the promise of employ- 
ment alter t'aeir training is over.— Er>. T.A.] 
APICULTURE AND OUR CEYLON 
BEES. 
Colonial Secretary's Offioe, Colombo, 
4th Aug. 1894. 
Bib. — I am directed to forward to you the en- 
closed papers regarding Apiculture.— I am, sir, 
your obedient Eervanl, H.WHITE, 
for Colonial Secretary. 
West Maitland, N. 8. W., Australia, 
June 20tb, 1894. 
His Excellency the Governor of Ceylon. 
Youb Excellency,— Will you be kind erjough to 
put me in communicatiou with an apiarist, if ouch 
an one exists, who lives near or within easy distance, 
of a port of Ceylon at which the P. & O. 01 Orient 
steamers call '/ 
I trust you will excuse the liberty I take in ad- 
dressing you on this matter, but although I have 
made many enquiries here I have failed to ascer- 
tain the whereabouts of a gentleman who is at 
all interested in Apiculture in Ceylon. My desire 
for knowing a Beekeeper in your Colony is actuated 
by the wish to carry out experiments in importing 
Queeu Bees from Europe and India euccfeshfully. 
Hitherto the death rate on such ventures has been 
as high as 70 per cent, and I believe if arrange- 
ments could be made with a gentleman in Ceylon 
to receive consignments addressed to Australia, iu- 
vestigate their condition and after a rest at Ceylon 
send them on to Australia much good would accrue 
to the industry here. Thanking you in anticipation, 
—I am, your obedient se-vant, R. 1'ATTEN. 
[r'ej page 166.— Ed. T.A.] 
PLUMBAGO (GRAPHITE) AND COAL 
MINING. 
August 8tb, 1894. 
Sib, — "F. H. M." 'a interesling paper on the plum- 
bago industry in the Kurunegala district brings baok 
vividly to mind a visit I paid some years ago to 
one of the largest coal mines in Yorkshire, ex- 
tending, in its ramifications, even underneath the 
sea. The means (1) of egress (by the " cage " 
which is an improvement on the plumbago-pit 
basket, though awful enough owing to the terriho 
speed at which it travels) ; (2) of locomotion 
inside, by trucks drawn on rails by horses, (3) 
of ventilation by exhausting the air in tbe mine 
and drawing in fresh air ; (4) of illumination, by 
eleotricity and Davy's ''safety," are all very different 
from the crude methods adopted in plumbago pits 
as described by "F.H.M." 
If any of the metals and minerals mentioned 
as being found in association with plumbago ocour 
to any appreciable or rather workable extent, how 
many valuable additions might we not have to 
t jr local arts and manufactures and even to our 
exports. 
Steatite or soapstone, if it oocurs in masses, 
might be worked into ornaments, plates, cups and 
saucers, as in Bengal. Magnetite ((eroso-ferric 
oxide) may perhaps be found to be a richer ore 
of iron than the "black seasand" of the ooast 
which experts thought some twenty-five years ago 
could not be remuneratively worked. Mica, if it 
could be obtained in large plates, would also have 
its value. 
Some day (?) perhaps we shall hear of metal- 
lurgical operations in the island, and of gold, 
nickel and manganese and iron being extracted 
from their ores !— Yours, &c, GRaPHITE. 
P.S.— Will "F.H.M." excuse me if I point out 
a little apparent confusion in his para on minerals ? 
I do not know whether it is due to misprinting. 
