I 
May t, 1895.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
757 
VARIOUS PLANTING NOTES. 
Liberian Coffee in Sumatra.— We call atten" 
tion to the very interesting second letter from 
our correspondent in Sumatra, an old and well- 
known Ceylon planter. What the writer tells 
us about the growth of, and crops on, Liberian 
coffee trees and the prospects before planting- 
capitalists generally in the district, is certainly 
encouraging. — Tea planters anxious for "green 
manure" for their tea should take note of what 
is said about ageratum : of course the indis- 
pensable condition is that it should be hoed or duf 
in before seeding. 
Liberian Coffee and Pulping.— Messrs' 
Walker, Sons & Co. , Ltd. , are issuing a very instruc 
tive circular (given with April's Tropical Agri 
culturist) an this subject which cannot fail to be 
of interest to all growers of Liberian Coffee, 
to whom the difficulty of securing a satisfactory 
" pulping " and consequently, economic prepar- 
ation, has hitherto been much of a puzzle. After 
ten years of attention, the problem lias been 
solved at the Colombo Iron Works, and pulpers 
are now available in four sizes and correspond- 
ing prices. The circular, which also deals with 
Liberian Coffee Sieves, Peelers, and Sizers, was 
bound up with the Tropical Agriculturist for April. 
The Scale Insect's (Green Bug's) Enemy.— 
To Mr. P. D. G. Clark we are indebted for a copy 
of a paper by Henry Tryon (of Queensland ?) writ- 
ten in September 1892 on this little beetle which 
has done such good service in Australia as well 
as California. We quote the paper (4 pages) else- 
where, but meantime may mention that the scientific 
name of the lady-bird is " Cryptolaemus Mon- 
trouzieri " — the first from two Greek words meaning 
" hidden scythe," the second from its discoverer. 
Although a conspicuous object in its larval con- 
dition, it is, fortunately, never itself consumed by 
insectivorous birds. It has cleared the bunya-bunya 
and auricaraceous trees growing about Brisbane 
of bug (coccus) and saved their lives, justas it 
has saved the orange groves in California. 
I'assara Planters' Association. — We are in- 
debted to Mr. Philby, the Secretary, for a copy 
of the minutes of a general meeting of this 
Association which will be found in another 
column. One of the most important subjects in 
the district is that of roads, and it seems to 
have been very fully discussed at the meeting 
in view of statistics collected by the Secretary 
as to the quantity of rice and produce trans- 
ported. Two social matters agreed upon were 
the starting of a Club and the entertaining of 
Mr. Geo. Thomson as a mark of respect on 
leaving the district. Messrs. Stewart-Taylor and 
Crabbe have been elected to the Committee, and 
we are sure they will prove very efficient, 
members. An improvement in the accom- 
modation at the Badulla Hospital seems to 
be much needed and we hope that it will 
receive the favourable consideration of the 
authorities. Another building which is required is 
a resthouse at Naminacooly Gap. The Chairman 
spoke heartily in support oi the Benevolent 
Fund and it was agreed that a subscri 
should be sent round. 
Typhoid Fever and Liver Abscess — are in 
danger sometimes of being confounded. A no- 
table illustration of this has just come before us 
in a letter from England. It refers to a well- 
known Doctor in large practice and we quote 
as follows for the benefit of our readers gene- 
rally, and of local medical practitioners in par- 
ticular: — "11c was very uusy and got struck 
down with illness which the many Doctors who 
iption list 
saw him, called typhoid fever. He lay 13 weeks 
in exhaustion, and then they found out it was 
abscess on the liver and operated in many places. 
But it was too late and he sank. Just such an- 
other case as Sir Robert Duffs at Sydney ; but 
more harrowing through prolonged suffering." It 
illustrates the need of careful and repeated diag- 
nosis; but if "many" London physicians were baffled 
in such a case, it must surely have been a specially 
obscure one of the disease. — This reminds us to offer 
a word of warning to holiday-makers at this time 
rushing to " the hills" about the need of guarding 
against a chill from the sudden change. We 
were astonished the other day to hear of the 
number of people who have caught a serious 
illness through getting a chill going up in the 
coach from Nanuoya to Nuwara Eliya — some of 
them old residents on the Plains who ought to 
have known better. Then, in Colombo, how many 
warnings have we had, especially lately, that 
"getting a chill" is even a more serious thing 
in the tropics than in England. Athletes — 
whether cricket, tennis, hockey, golf or other 
players or oarsmen should remember, how in- 
dispensable it is to "change" promptly after 
their spot is over, and never to sit in damp 
clothes. A few "hints" of this kind should be 
put in an available form to hand to young men 
arriving in the Colony. 
Milk Diet in the East. —In a recent number 
of the British Medical Journal we notice an 
interesting paper by Dr. Geo. Thin entitled 
" Remarks on Milk Diet in the Severe Intestinal 
Diseases Acquired in the East." Dr. Thin has had 
a long experience of the management of certain cli- 
matic disorders of the intestines by exclusive milk 
diet, and in this paper he explains how he overcame 
the difficulties inseparable from the treatment. 
So far, he says, he has only twice failed to get 
a patient to go on exclusive milk diet. In a 
case of psilosis in which the patient said she 
could neither take nor digest milk he found the 
use of rerated milk of inestimable value, and 
in another of chronic diarrluea with complica- 
tions in which great difficulty was experienced 
in getting the patient to swallow sufficient 
milk to sustain life, evaporated milk was 
prescribed with excellent results. To evaporate 
milk properly requires great care, and the 
Doctor describes a simple apparatus which he 
had made for the purpose consisting of 
a small regulating spirit lamp with a wire stand 
for holding an enamelled pan containing the 
milk at a convenient height from the name. 
The milk should be heated rapidly but must 
not be allowed to reach the boiling point ; and 
in this pan 10 ounces can be reduced to 5 in 
half an hour. It must be stirred continually 
after it gets warm and until it has become cold 
to prevent a skin forming. If the cream is 
allowed to come to the top the milk takes 
longer to evaporate and the taste is not so good. 
When the evaporation is properly effected the 
cream remains mixed in the milk as usual, but 
of course rises on standing. The milk should 
therefore be stirred before being drunk. Dr. 
Thin also makes some some remarks in connec- 
tion with one of the diseases for which the milk 
treatment is the remedy, namely psilosis typical 
cases of which are found in Ceylon. — >V hile 
nilk is credited with curative action in Eastern 
intestinal diseases, we see that against it there Is 
recorded the suspicion that it is sometimes the vehi- 
cle of a modified form of foot and mouth-disease to 
human beings, an epidemic having occurred in 
Germany. 
