S44 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feh. t. 1895. 
CATERPILLARS AND PLANTATIONS. 
A recent Jamaica paper lias, a series of paper*, 
I beginning with an order in the 1 lunnum ut 
Gazette, which is headed "A plague of cater- 
pillars." Mr. Fawcett, Director of the local Public 
Gardens and Plantation writes about caterpillars 
attacking the young shoots of cacao trees, and 
he appends " Report on the caterpillar plague 
at Hongkong/' We sent the whole to .Mr. E. 
E. Green for his opinion and he thinks the Re- 
port worthy of being reproduced in tils 
periodical in order to "show the value of hand- 
picking in such eases." Mr. Green adds - 
The particular caterpillar that is attacking the 
cacao in Jamaica is not specified, so it is impossible 
to say if it is likely to trouble us in Ceylon, The 
Hongkong pest has several allies in this island. The 
caterpillar described in my little book on insect pests 
of the tea plant, under the name of " the blue -striped 
nettle-grub ' (Parana lej/^da), occasionally completely 
defoliates a tea bush. And more recently I have 
received from an estate near N'awulapitiya another 
caterpillar of the same family (JThosea rectaS, whete 
it was present apparently in enormous numbers, and 
had completely stripped the bushes of everything 
but the youngest shoots over about 50 acres. These 
caterpillars are provided with stinging hairs, which 
add to the difficulty of c'fSllt ting them. 
Mr, Eawcett would do well to get his cacao 
caterpillar identified and described. Meantime 
we give all the available information. 
WITHERING LEAF. 
(BY A PLANTER.) 
The favourite means for withering in Sylhet and 
Cachar is to expose the leaves on open mesh trav.-. 
which are stacked in racks at a few inches apart ; 
in some cases Hessian cloth is used. In Assam 
the leaf houses are frequently on a very old pattern. 
They are some hundreds of feet in length by twenty 
to thirty feet in breadth, and thirty or forty feet up 
to the east of the roof ; from end to end are platforms 
covered with bamboo mats. The platforms or 
" chungs " are four feet apart vertically, and the 
leaf is spread over them. The work of putting up and 
taking down the leaf is done by boys, who creep about 
in the four feet space. Owners of gardens which have 
this style of house speak very highly of the 
system. I know that some gardens which wither 
on "Chungs" get very fine prices, and the makers 
of fans, &c, should publish certificates that equally 
good prices have been obtained from tea made 
from artificially withered leaf. Many planters do 
not believe in artificial withering if it eau be dis- 
pensed with, but some also say that it has no 
bad effect. — The Planter. 

DRUG REPORT. 
(From Chemist and Druggist.) 
London, Jan. 10th. 
Am Natto-seed — Unchanged. — There was a fair supply of 
East Indian, all of which was bought in. Fourpence'per 
lb is wanted for fairly bright seed. 
Cinchona. — A very large quantity of South American 
bark was offered today. Loxa sold at lOd to Is 2d per 
lb for ordinary to fair .quilly, showing a reduction of 
about 2d per lb in value Huanoco bark also sold 
i cheaply at prices ranging from Hid per lb for fair bright 
mixed sound down to 34 d per lb for ordinary damaged 
quill and chips. Guayaquill bought Is to Is 3d per lb 
for fair grey quill, and from lOd down to ed for broken 
and dull to long thin damaged. All these prices are 
' lower. Of cultivated flat Bolivian Calisaya bark nearly 
■ 800 packages were offered. The bulk of- it consisted of thin 
rather dark bold prices, and was bought in at Is 3d per 
. lb. For tine hard bright bark 2s is asked, a bid of Is 
8d being refused for this description. Five packages of 
■ good hard ditto, but slightly damaged, sold at Is 9d per 
lb,- A parcel of 26 packages hard broken spurious Calisaya 
fill damaged, -realised the very low figures of from Sd 'to 
<»Jd per lb. A newly-wired parcel oi about , Geo lb of 
South American wild red bark attracted wuir a tie 11 (ion ; 
but no sales were effected when the holders »tated that 
their price for tin- best lot. good bright split quill, was 
12s per lb. They Mlbaequenti) refused au otter of ok |d 
per lb for fair pieces. A lot ot ordinary red built, im- 
ported via Hamburg, was bought in at from Is to :« jiri 
lb. The total export* of cinchona-bark from Ccvlou weic 
2,500,000 lb in 1804, against 3,500,000 ll, j„ mgg. The bulk 
of this van of very poor quality. The Java shipments 
amounted to !l t ."iOO,u0O lb in 1*51*4, against 7,5on,ouu lb in 
1803. 
The first cinchona-auctions of the year, which look 
place on Tuesday, were among the uioKt iiifciguificanl etei 
helil in Luiulou, the five catalogue* being composed as 
follows :— 
packages package* 
Ceylon cinchona 11*4 of which HI were sold 
East Indian cinchona. . 1 ,, U$ 
Java cinchona . . 67 „ 07 
West African cinchona 56 „ 450 
South American cinchona 225 ,, 225 
HWO 9B1 
The tone at the auctions was fairly steady, and the unit 
may be put down a* averaging about Ad per lb. The fol- 
lowing arc the approximate quantities purchased by the 
different huvcrs :— 
Lb. 
Agenls for the liriinswick factory - :i.".,7o;< 
Agents for the Auerbacb factory - 34,100 
.Messrs. Howard and Son* - • 27,037 
Agents for the Krankfoi t-on-Maine factory O.stts, 
Agent* for the American ami Italian works 1,275 
Various druggist* - - - M£U 
Total quantity sold - 141, 7«J 
liought in or withdrawn - 27,975 
Total quantity offered - 16!»,771 
The following prices were paid :— Ceylon and East In- 
dian : Succirubra stem chip*, fair at lSdtoljd; Renewed 
ditto, common to good at Id to 2id ; Officinalis, ordinary 
natural chips at lid to lfd; good root at 2Jd broken 
quill at 2|d : renewed chip* and shavings fair at 2id to 
2!d ; Ledger, natural stem chips at t'(a to 2Jd, branch 
at 2jd ; Java : Fifty bale* and 17 bag* offered and sold ; 
Ledger dusty chips at 2Jd to 2id. branch at Id. African : 
ordinary to good quill and quilling* at Id to 2!d. Call- 
saya : lair to good sound littie broken cultivated Bolivian 
quill at 23d to 4}d per lb. 
CltoTON-SKKti -- llather scarce and tirml) held The 36 
bag* offered today do not include anything of fine quality. 
For ordinary small and grey to damaged seed for Ceylon 
the price ranged from 2(i* down tfl 20* per cwt. 
Kola— Price* are .still declining. Seven bags offered at 
auction today realised from ]s Id to Is 4d for fair to good 
bright West Indian. This is a fall of about 2d per lb as 
compared with the last sales 
QfiNiNH— The market lias been utterly stagnant thi* 
week. The neatest quotation for secondhand German bnlk 
is ll J ,d per oz. 
Vanilla —About 150 tins offered today, and sold with 
excellent competition at an advance of from 2s to 3s for 
fine qualities, 5J- to 8^d inch realising 19s ed to 23s ; good 
chocolate, 5 to 8 niche*, 15s to 17s Oil ; foxy and brown 
to fair, from 4s fld to Us lid per lb. 
TEA DRUNKENNESS IN AMERICA. 
The Spectator, in the article we copy else- 
where, brings to light a rather serious state 
of things in America, if it be true that the 
New \ork doctors have reported as described. 
We have, however, yet to see the Report, and 
when it comes to Ceylon in a detailed and 
authentic form, it may be necessary for the 
Planters' Association to take some official notice 
of it. Meantime, while our London contem- 
porary has shown his acquaintance with the 
large consumption of tea by the people of the 
United Kingdom, by Australians and Russians, 
the writer does not seem to understand that 
the consumption of tea in. America is com- 
paratively trifling. The average is not much 
above I to I3 lb. ahead against 5 lb. in the mother 
country, and no less than 7 lb. in Australasia. 
How then is it that "tea drunkenness " should 
first be discovered in New York instead of in 
London or Melbourne ? We strongly suspect 
that some other "liquor" had to do with 
