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-THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. i, 1895. 
My plans for 
THE CEYLON COUBX, 
I am preparing to submit to the Ceylon delegates 
and will, I am sure, look more imposing than the 
drawing I sent the Chairman of the Planters' As- 
sociation, A. Melville White Esq., with my proposition 
for the Exhibition ; I have not altered the effect of 
the original, one hit ; I have simply added a wing 
right and left on the front elevation ; this change 1 
find practical as it will accommodate the tea service, 
tea and other exhibits to good advantage and with 
the tea being displayed, each grade in separate glass 
jars with screw tops, properly labled will make this 
exhibit of the teas of Ceylon a very interesting one, 
and to make the exhibit still more attractive, 1 hope 
that a representation of other products of the island 
will share a space in the representation. This scenn 
to be the feeling of Mr. Fielder also that we make 
a good and interesting display and that a direct 
representation will be the most satisfactory. 
I find that I am imposing too inucii on your 
valuable time, dear Mr. Editor, though a few more 
words and I will have finished. With your own to li- 
able visit to Atlanta in 1884, and your endorsement as 
to its central location, coupled with the visit that in 
all probability the Delegates will make to Atlanta on 
their tour of the United States. 1 feel that the re- 
presentation at the Cotton states and International 
Exhibition is assured, and that not only the Hags of 
Ceylon and America will wave over the Court, but 
a banner, with " Duink Ceylon Tea." — 1 am, 
aithfully yours, S. BIEltACH. 
N. B: — The New York office scheme I sent with- 
out any explanation, was prepared by me to submit 
to the ( eylon representatives. 
LIBEKIAN COFFEE IN CEYLON. 
DeAk SiR, — The sale of Ceylon Arabian coffee at 
R20 per bushel did not come as a surprise to the 
"knowing ones" and though it may seem incredible, 
that figure will not be the limit, so long as oven 
20,000 cwt. only is exported. The cultivation again 
of this product notwithstanding the present and 
increasing value, should not, however, be undertaken 
save by those who have some experience or can 
entrust it to those with experience, beginning with 
fche knowledge of soil, climate etc. New cultivations 
will not last and must be planted with the object 
Of forcing crops and falling back on some other 
product planted amongst it. As regards old existing 
estates, much could yet be done in the way of 
trenching, manuring &c. and for sufficient instruc- 
tions reference to the Coffee Planters' Manual now re- 
printed at the y&Sewef office, is amply sufficient. 
It appears that a clearing of Liberian coffee in the 
Btraits Settlements gave a yield of 9 cwt. per acre ! 
Now I am convinced that this can be got in Ceylon, 
too ; but even after very ordinary cultivation in fairly 
good soil, if 5 cwt. an acre is only got, there are 
fortunes yet to be made in this product by some — 
particularly those who start early and //Unit fill. 
The piice of this product is rising and is as certain 
to sell at B15 a bushel in 1895 and for several years 
after, as Arabian coffee will, at R'20 to K25. Between 
this and April, land can be cleared and prepared 
for the S.-W. season, the best season for planting of 
any product. Pla nts are cheap enough and procurable 
from many small Liberian estates now being extended. 
By careful planting. 1 mean the making of good 
holes and filling them with all the ashes and surface 
soil, for coffee loves a rich soil. Particular care 
should be taken to till in vacancies, and where plants 
look seedy and stunted to put in fresh plants. The 
tea planting (or " sticking in") style must be dropped, 
if anything' like a decent iield of coffee is expected, 
yielding heavy and steady crops of fruit — not leaf. 
A 25-acre held of Liberian coffee properly 
planted and attended to, promises in a year or two 
to give a beiteP return than 75 to 100 acres 
of good tea. You cannot expect a crop " to 
clear all expenses" earlier than the -1th year, but 
from a clearing 2$ years old the first picking begins 
and being always in fruit, a special large staff of 
coolies for picking is not needed — not more than one- 
third the number of men to keep the j.l..... going 
that is required for a like extent in t«a. Machinery 
and buildings for gathering and curing crop will cost 
40 per cent less than same for manufacturing tea. 
With cocoa coconuts and othci products among the 
coffee and with prices good for one decade at least, 
there is nothing to fear. D. S. 
THE MOON S INFLIENCE ON THE 
WEATHEB. 
Deau Sih, — Your correspondent " One Interested " 
is very clever to "lure" another on in order that 
he may " stumble," and so very wise that he can 
"shut up the text-book " and speak as the authorized 
expounder of Science herself, saying " science defies 
any man to trace that influence in even the slightest 
degree, A.c." I have given names and statements of 
men high in science, to the effect that there is some 
influence on the weather. But I do not care to 
discuss that point as it is admittedly small. As to 
the utMnblinff, he does not yet make it clear. Per- 
haps he has another trap laid in the multiplicity of 
his words. I was amazed at his questions before, 
and 1 cannot see that he has bettered the case now. 
The fact that no one has measured the tide in mid- 
ocean does not prove that it cannot Ik- measured. 
If he will furnish the money I will agree to get it 
measured as a distinct definite tide twice a aay a 
hundred miles from land. A rise of three feet in 
six hours is not easily measured from a moving vessel 
over a depth of several miles, but it can be done. 
I fail to see what he means by *' a slight bulge 
which takes a month to move round the earth, 
a sleepy old billow, too sluggish to make 
sea-weather." In what possible sense can the 
tidal elevation be said to move around the earth in 
a month ? He says the coasts, islands, etc., pass 
through this watery elevation, or dash against it and 
so have their waters disturbed, just as if the sea were 
a Watery shell thicker on the side next the moon, 
and the solid earth were moving within it. It does 
not seem possible that any one can bold such an 
opinion, and yet this is all I can make of his state- 
ments. He says that this elevation "is not far from 
under the moon." He is evidently not aware of the 
fact that the tide in the middle of the Pacifi ic the 
principal tide on the earth, and controls the tide in 
all other parts of the earth. In the centre of the 
Pacific it is comparatively free, and rises there twice 
in "25 hours, nearly under the moon or opposite to it, 
and in order to an elevation of three feet every 
particle of water must move on the averag a bait' 1 
mile to and fro. Where the water is less deep the 
motion of translation of the water is much more. 
After the tide has risen in the mid-Pacific the ele- 
vation tends to follow the moon, but the obstruc- 
tions hinder the movement of the water so much 
that before it reaches that part of the Indian ocean 
south of Ceylon, the moon has gained a whole 
quadrant, and is at right angles to the tide. The 
local tides are overpowered, but this one elevation 
keeps steadily on and when it reaches the south-east 
Atlantic it is enforced by the opposite tide, but before 
it reaches the mid-Atlantic it is a quadrant behind 
that, and by the lime it reaches the shores of Eng- 
land it is 36 hours behind. In the eastern Pacific" 
the tide moves in the opposite direction. i.« .. from 
West to East. I do not see how these facts ate con- 
sistent with your correspondent's statements. The 
tidal movement affects the water to its lowest depth 
and a movement varying from a half-mile to several 
miles in six hours must cause some "'sea-weather," 
as he calls it. although the air differs in many 
respects as he has pointed out, it may help us if 
wo remember that more than half of the atmosphere 
is below the level of the highest mountains, and that 
very small variants when frequent may have con- 
siderable effect on nearly balanced forces. What 
Tennyson calls the "moon-led waters" inav have 
their counterpart in a small degree in moon-led airs, 
—Yours truly, JAFFNA COLIwEGE^ 
