498 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jam. r, 1895. 
desires of that large class of gentlemen at home of 
whom Mr. Mioawber is still a fair type. To grow 
it abroad is the aim of the yotmg and hopeful, who 
scent romance on the hillsides of Ceylon and Dar- 
jeeling. To him Assam is an earthly paradise if 
it will but afford him what he and his sisters and 
cousins and aunts are pleased to call "an opening." 
■— i H. and C. Mail. 
*~ — — 
TEA FACTORIES IN HALDUMMULLA, 
CEYLON. 
The tea factory erected under the able manage- 
ment of Mr. J. H. W. Mayow of Batgoda Estate 
has now been completed and only the machinery 
remains to be fitted up, which will be worked by a 
turbine. In a short time the work of manufac- 
turing tea in this factory is expected to begin. Great 
credit is due to Mr. Mayow for his engineering 
skill in constructing and fitting unaided by any 
Engineer. This factory with all its machinery is the 
largest and best on this side. 
The tea factory in Lower "Wiharagalla Estate has 
also been completed and Dr. Van llooyen occupying 
a bungalow close to it has been noticed to quit" the 
building which belongs to that Estate in order to 
make room for the tea maker 
SALE OF ESTATES. 
We hear that Claremont estate in Lowera 
Dikoya has been purchased for £6,500 by a 
Company and that ifcikvrugalle in the Kelani 
Valley has also changed hands, hav.'ng been pur- 
chased by Messrs. Deane, Christie and Lindsay — 
the proprietors of the adjoining estate I{uan\vel 1 a, 
for R45,000. Claremont estate, belonged to Mr. 
M. Pascoe and consisted of 336 acres, over 
200 of which are in tea. Hakurugalle estate on 
the other hand, included 269 acres, with 125 it tea 
BANANA LEAVES FOR COWS. 
There is no green feed-stuff growing in Florida 
which cows will eat more readily than banana 
leaves. They will even consume the stems of the 
leaves and the fruit, if cut into suitable lengths, and 
the fruit itself, if it is of the common or horse variety, 
cannot be put to better use than to be given to the 
family cow. Cassava leaves are also relished by most 
cattle, and they might as well be fed to them as to be 
left on the bushes to be rendered useless by frost. — 
Florida Fanner and Fruit Grower. 
THE CULTIVATION OF TEA IN RUSSIA. 
The news that about 40,000 acres of Government 
land in the neighbourhood of Chakva, near Batouni, 
have recently been purchased by the Department 
of Crown Estates for tea plantations, and that a 
commission will proceed to India, Southern China, 
and Ceylon, with the object of thoroughly studying 
the methods of tea culture in those coun- 
tries, lends interest to the consular report 
on tea cultivation in the Batoum district. Tea 
plantations are already in existence at Chakva, near 
Batoum, belonging to Messrs. K. and S. Popoff, tea 
merchants, of Moscow, and they have been considerably 
extended this year under the supervision of the 
Chinese tea planters who were Drought over in 
1893 ; a large number, about 6"00, natives of the Cau- 
casus are also employed on the plantations of this 
firm. Mr. A. Solovtzoff gives an account of his 
experience in raising this plant since 1884. He states 
that" at that time his chief concern was the ques- 
tion of procuring tea plants for planting ; he feared 
to" order seed lest old should be sent, and besides 
this, the seed of tea contains a volatile oil in con- 
siderable quantity, which, during a long voyage, would 
be likely to evaporate. Excessive dryness deprives it 
of the oil, and too much damp causes it to rot. He ob- 
tained a few plants in July, 1885, together with some 
seedlings. The condition of both left much to be 
desired, as they had received but little care and water 
during their transit, and were to a great extent dam. 
aged by the Customs authorities, who used quicklime 
for the purpose of disinfecting them against the im- 
portation of phylloxera I At first they grew badly, 
and all the shrubs dried up, but from the seedlings 
he was able to develop his plantation. 
The land chosen for the plantation was a red, clayey 
soil dressed with a thin coat of manure composed 
of thoroughly rotted leaves and brancheb. The teeds 
which ripen in the course of a year and are gathered 
in October, are strewed with dry sand, and are kept 
in earthenware vessels, and in March are damped 
with a solution of camphor, spirits, and water, to 
force their growth. The seeds, after shooting up, 
are transplanted into the nurnery beds, the soil of 
which is the same as that of the plantation, but 
which has a certain proportion of sea sand admixed 
for the purpose of rendering it more fri&ble. The 
seeds are sown at a distance of three and a-half 
inches apart at a depth of one and th-ee-quarter 
inhces. As soon as the young shoots make their 
appearance above ground it is necessary to cover 
them over with mats in order to protect them from 
the excessive heat of the sun. In dry weather the 
young seedlings have to be watered once a day, and 
under this system of cultivation it is fonnd" that 
every seed comes up.' 
In order to slay the ravages of the mole cricket 
Mr. Solovtzoff annually removes the nursery beds to 
fresh ground, and buries in the nursery beds in 
a line with the burrows of the crickets, grains of 
Indian corn boiled in a solution of arsenic or cor- 
rosive sublimate. The propagation of the tea plant 
by means of cuttings should be avoided. Now that 
he has an almost unlimited supply of seedlings, 
Mr. Solovtzoff intends transplanting only the 
stronger ones. The seedlings remain in the beds 
a whole year, and are then planted out four 
feet apart from each other. The plantation 
requires to be freed from weeds twice a year. For 
the first year the young plants should be pro- 
tected from the rays of the sun by branches of 
trees. No manure has been U6ed hitherto, but when 
planting out the seedlings this year it was in- 
tended to manure the soil with timber ashes and 
refuse from oil mills. During the dry season, 
May and June, when the heat is very great, the 
grown-up plants stand the climate very well, but 
young plants have to be protected. The winter 
of 1892-93 was exceptionally rigorous, the frosts 
being as severe as six degrees Reaumur, but 
neither the plants nor seedlings suffered, although 
the latter were, for several days, almost covered 
with snow. 
The plantation, which covers about five acres, 
contains plants of all sizes, ranging from five 
years' to one-and-a-half year's growth. The num- 
ber of plants was 5,150; and about 8,000 seed- 
lings were to be planted out during the present 
year. There is a sufficient quantity of seed in 
stock to raise 40,000 more seedlings, and the quan- 
tity of the tea ( Theaviridis ) is good. — R.$ 
C. Mail. 
BITTER KOLA NUTS. 
The new products which are brought into the drug- 
market from time to time are often interesting from other 
points besides that of their possible commercial value. 
It not infrequently happens, indeed, that plants are thus 
brought to light that are new to botanical science, or 
that the seeds or fruits in their developed or ripened state 
are seen for the first time in this country through the 
channels of trade. We are reminded of this by the 
appearance during the past month or so of samples of 
some seeds from the West Coast of Africa, which, though 
known by some of the dealers as kola, are so distinct 
from the true kola f Cola acuminata ) as to have burned 
some of those who have seen them for the first time. 
The seeds to which we refer are from 1 inch to J inch 
long, and J inch in diameter across the centre ; they are 
of an oval-cuneiform shape, rounded on the external and 
somewhat flattened or angular on the internal face. In 
the fresh state they are covered with a light-yellowish 
pulp, but, seen as in commerce, this is replaced by a thin 
brownish skin — indeed, so thin is it that it is easily broken 
and, failing away, discloses the actual seed. This seed "is 
externally of dirty-brown colour with a rough or irregu- 
larly channelled surface ; a section shows a hard yellow 
