622 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. (March i, 1895. 
eubject very shortly, as our belief is that oil Engines 
have a great future before them in working up our 
industries economically and permitting the employ' 
inent of engine power where it would otherwise nave 
been prohibitive. — Indian Engineer. 
VANILLA CULTIVATION IN MAURITIUS. 
A correspondent in Mauritius calls attention to 
the fact that the cultivation of Vanilla, which haifl 
hitherto been one of the staple products of the 
island, is rapidly diminishing, and will soon be a 
thing of the past. The cause h.is been put down to 
the continued robbery of the Vanilla est ites by the 
Indian immigrants ; but the real reason of the dis- 
continuance is the increasing competition of the 
Vanilla grown in Bourbon which can be produced 
there at a much cheaper rate, owing to the soil being 
more suited for its cultivation. The planters also 
complain that the fluctuation in prices, says the 
" Chemist and Druggist," per kilo render the article 
a very speculative one. — lutunal of Horticulture. 
COCONUTS AND CINNAMON IN THK 
VEYANGODA DISTRICT, CEYLON. 
Feb. 27. 
Jupiter Pluvius has at last deigned to remember 
us. In January we registered here only 2"29 inches 
of rain — the aggregate of 6 days' fall. The last 
shower was on the 17th when "68 was measured. 
The drought continued till the 1th instant when J 45 
fell. Very welcome it was ; but it was only sufficient 
to freshen the pasturage, and the moisture scarcely 
reached the roots of trees. It cannot truly be said 
that the earth was like iron and the sky like brass 
on the 20 days that followed. You may have compared 
the ground to any hard metal you pleased, but the 
skies promised great things for us with inky black 
clouds, afternoon after afternoon, which pnesaged 
heavy showers ; but alas ! to no purpose. I 
began to appreciate the story of R. B. T. shaking 
his fists at the clouds as they sailed past 
the Dumbara Valley in the old coffee days, 
to deposit their moisture in more favoured districts; 
but as there is no meteorological register of the 
success of his threats on the threatening clouds, I 
scarcely felt justified in following his minatory ex- 
ample. Whether I coaxed the clouds in some un- 
conscious way, I cannot tell ; but on the afternoon, 
of the 24th, after a preliminary drizzle, the foun- 
tains of heaven were opened, and the rainfall of an 
hour or so registered 1"92. As it was all sucked in, 
there can be no doubt vegetation was vastly bene- 
fited. On the 25th afternoon, the clouds again 
played us false, but only for a while, as the drizzle 
commenced shortly after 7, and here there was a 
rattling good shower weich lasted nearly an hour, 
and measured 1'79. Yesterday was fine ; but there is 
promise of rain again this afternoon; but whether it be 
fulfilled or not, it is something to have had over 
4 inches in February. 
I can assure you, the outlook was not pleasant for 
Coconuts and Cinnamon, with the scanty rainfall of 
1894, when we registered here only 6806 inches, 
against 100'32 inches in 1893, and an average of over 
90 inches for 7 or 8 years. The show of nuts on the 
trees was poor enough, and the steady droppings 
struck terror into the heart of the planter. The 
showers of rain have been followed by a shower of 
tender nuts ; but that is inevitable, and I fancy the 
fallen kurumbatties represent nuts which would never 
have come to maturity. Only they would have drop- 
ped more leisurely ; now we know the worst has hap- 
pened, and with a normal March and April, the 
next three plucking should be safe. By the way, it 
would be interesting to have the names and acreages 
of the estates Mr. Davidson* referred to yielding a 
profit of R100 an acre, and the period they have so 
yielded. I don't say it is impossible, but I guess the 
estates are fewer than the tea estates yielding simi- 
lar results. Cinnamon too is growing apace ; and 
when the leafbud now on has matured there should 
be work for the peelers for the next few weeks. But 
will they come ? There are the distractions of the 
New Year festivities ahead, and the excuse oi work 
in the paddy fields. The lot of the cinnamon plan- 
ter is a hard one with a caste industry to manage ! 
- - ♦ 
CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF CEYLON TKA. 
Mr. John Hughes in sending us In- remark* on 
Mr. Stanton's paper (already printed with the full 
report) draws our attention to the Chairman* 
concluding speech as follows: — 
The Chaihman (Surgeon-General De Renzy. c.u) 
said the evidence produced by Mr. Hughes on the 
tannin question was pretty conclusive ; the difference 
was comparatively small, and no more th«n would 
he accounted for by the richness of the Assam tea 
in extractive matter generally. But he really thought 
this tannin question was, to a great extent, a mere 
bugbear; and that if a thoroughly scientific analysis 
were made, it would l>e found there was nothing in 
it. All he could say was that on a long inarch, and 
where troops were exposed to great hardships, a cup 
of Assam tea was one of the most sustaining and 
invigorating beverages a soldier could have. 
Mr. Hughes comments on this in a way which 
ought to receive the attention of the Planters' 
Association, as follows: — 
From the Chairman's concluding remarks vou will 
see that my determinations of tannin in specimens 
of Indian, Ceylon and China, which were made in 
my oirn pritate research, proved useful to the general 
interests of the Ceylon tea industry ; and I think 
it would be to the interest of Ceylon planters that 
there should be some official action taken towards 
fuller and more complete chemical analyses being 
made of the different kinds and qualities of tea pro- 
duced in Ceylon. 
Sugar in Ceylon.— Though Ceylon proved a 
failure in respect of sugar culture and prepara- 
tion on a large scale, it by no means follows 
that in a quiet way a good deal may not be 
profitably done in sugar for local consumption. 
This has been shown at Baddegama by the Messrs 
Winter & Bowman ; while sugarcane is very 
freely cultivated by the natives over a large ex- 
tent of country near Colombo as well as near 
(ialle. This n.athe cultivation has hitherto 
been chiefly for the purpose of selling the 
cane in the bazaar as a sweet vegetable, 
to be consumed as the people dispose of 
bananas or pine-apples. A common resource on 
a journey is a stalk of sugarcane which a Sin- 
halese man often throws over his shoulder, munch- 
ing at the end of it as he goes along ! But 
we were not aware that of late, many of the 
Sinhalese cultivators had begun to crush the cane 
and to manufacture sugar therefrom, no doubt 
after a primitive fashion. Our idea was that 
of all produce-preparing machinery that for sugar 
was the most expensive ; but a visit from a 
Hanwella resident who wished to know about 
the "small mills" employed by his countrymen 
in the Southern Province, led to our discovering 
that Messrs. Walker, Sons & Co., Limited, have 
been freely supplying sugar-crushing hand-mills 
to Sinhalese in the Baddegama district, and that 
they do not cost R500 and upwards as our Han- 
welle inquirer supposed, but only a little over 
R200. Alonsf the Kaduwelle-Hanwella road, a 
great deal of sugar-cane is grown and with the 
commencement now to be made by our Sinha- 
lese friend, much of the produce may erelong be 
crushed and the result sold as useful if coarse 
sugar. The Kadawella-Hanwelle district grows its 
own tea, and has plenty of cattle — so that hencefor- 
ward the people should be independent and have 
a free and abundant breakfast table ! Tea grown 
and prepared by the Sinhalese is sold in the 
Hanwela bazaars at 25 cents a lb. 
