May i, 1895.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
759 
The Rhea Ficke Syndicate.— The Financial 
News of the 5th ultimo has a notice of this 
Syndicate which is represented in Ceylon by 
Capt. Whitley of the ss. "Lady Gordon" who 
has secured specimens of the plant and is en- 
deavouring to have the experiment tried here at 
his own expense. In order to encourage the 
new industry Government might, we think, give 
a grant of land on favourahle terms. 
Southern India Tea Estates Company, Limited. — 
Registered by Tenipleton and Cox, 9 King's Bench 
Walk, Temple, e.c, with a capital of £40,000 in 
£10 shares. Object to acquire the Kaduwa Karnum 
Estates, situate at Travancore, Southern India, to 
adopt an agreement for that purpose, and to cultivate 
tea, coffee, tapioca, coconuts, sago, &c. The first 
directors — to be not less than three not more than 
five — are W. P. Laurie, T. C. Owen, and A. V. Holland. 
Qualification, £100. Remuneration to be fixed by the 
company. The above notice appeared in this morn- 
ing's Financial Nei.os, and, from the names of the 
promoters, the Company's shares will, no doubt, be 
rapidly taken up. — Cor., local " Times." 
Cold Water as a Purifier. — Much is said to be 
done nowadays by the various disinfectants that science 
has brought forward during the last few years, so that 
many simple remedies are apt to he overlooked in strain- 
ing after new ideas. Fresh cold water is a powerful 
absorbent of gases, therefore it should be greatly used 
in a sick-room or in one that cannot be frequently venti- 
lated. A bowl of cold water kept in a room and 
changed daily is of great assistance in purifying the air. 
This of course shows that water which has stood in a 
close compartment is thoroughly unfit for drinking 
purposes. A bowl of water placed under a patient's 
bed and changed daily is a great preventive of bed 
sores, and also keeps the patient in better health gene- 
rally. I have, too. proved by experience that a vessel 
of cold water placed near the head of a restless sleeper 
will give quiet and relief. — Pearson's Weekly,. 
The Statistical Position of Coffee. — There is no 
product grown iu the East, says Madras Mail, the 
statistical position of which in the markets of the world 
is at the present time, from the producer's point of 
view, so strong as coffee. For the last five years 
now we luive witnessed a hand-to-mouth business being 
done, season after season, iu Mincing Lane, and, so 
far as can be foreseen, there is new factor likely to 
arise in the near future which will materially in- 
crease supply. So long as the present demand con- 
tinues, prices are bound to keep up, for a review of 
the sub-tropical tracts of the globe where the aromatic 
berry is grown, reveals that of recent years there has 
been no extension of the cultivation of the product 
either to such an extent as to cause au effect on the 
world's markets, or which lias not been neutralised b}' 
the decay of production in other quarters of the earth. 
What has been the average annual production for 
the last five years, that we may predict it will continue 
to be for, at any rate, the rest of this century. But 
will the demand keep up ? We see no reason why it 
should not, and this opinion is in a manner con- 
firmed by the following excerpt from an article which 
appeared in a recent issue of the Grocer. We do not 
know what arc the grounds on which our contemporary 
bases its presumption that the corps of Central America 
and the West Indies will be larger next year than 
this, but if they are not more reliable than those on 
which it asserts that the 1896 crop of the East Indies 
to exceed that of 1S95, these predictions can be of 
little worth, for when they were penned, hardly a 
blossom-shower had fallen in Southern India. The 
Grocer understands that the Java crop of I89t> is to 
be a full one, but it assigns no reason for the state- 
ments. These estimates of big crops coming forward 
during the next season have been proved, time after 
time, to be fallacious and over-sanguine, and wo see no 
good cause why we should place greater ciedenco in the 
present vaticinationsof the Gmcer, Brazil's production, 
it is certain, will lie considerably less next year, and 
it has yet to be si 011 whether there will be a materia) 
increase from other countries. Meanwhile the price 
e soars steadily. 
Travancore Planters' Association. —We 
have to acknowledge receipt of proceedings of 
the Travancore Planters' Association for the 
year 1894-95. very well compiled and nicely 
printed. The Ceylon " tax on tea" occupies 
a prominent place in these pages. 
Our Tea Distribution.— It is satisfactory to 
see from the Chamber of Commerce table today 
that the tea exports for this season to Australasia, 
America, Mauritius, and Russia all shew a com- 
parative increase over last 3 ear at the same date. 
As might be expected to India there is a compara- 
tive decrease. 
"The Student's Practical Chemistry.— Test Tables 
for Qualitative Analysis" by Samuel Cooke, m.a., b.e., 
Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., (f.i.c,, f.g.s., cor. Mem. ' Roy! 
Hist. Soc), Principal and Professor of Chemistry and 
Geology in the College of Science, Poona (third 
edition — revised and enlarged) published by George 
Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, and Bombay 
seems a very useful pamphlet of some 25 pages with 
4 blank pages for Memoranda. 
The "Agricultural Gazette" of New South Wales 
published by the Department of Agriculture. Vol. VI. 
Part 1. January. 1805. Contents: Useful Australian 
Plants, the so-called Mahoganies of New South Wales • 
Marram Grass ( l'samuai arcnaria, E. ct S.J, a valuable 
Sand-stay; Phylloxera of the Vine; Entomological 
Notes, a new Friendly Ladybird; Shivers in Horses: 
Shipment of Cattle by the "Port Pirie " to London- 
'I'll.- Brittany Cow; Poultry and Eggs for Export- 
Practical Vegetable-growing, Directions for the month 
of February; Orchard Notes for February; General 
i-Jotes ; List of Agricultural: Societies' Shows, 1895. 
Tea and Tobacco, it would appear, are' destined 
to run together as dividend-making investments. We 
read in a Calcutta contemporary that an application 
was made on Monday at the High Court there, on 
behalf of the Jetinga Valley Tea Company, to enable 
them to reduce their capital with a view to declaring 
the phenomenal dividend of 50 per cent., while from 
the. Straits papers to hand we gather that the 
Netherlands India Sumatra Tobacco Company de- 
clared a dividend of 180 per cent, preparatory to 
going into amalgamation with the Serdang Tobacco 
Matschappij ! "The two T's" should become popular 
investments after that. — Madras Times, April 15th 
Eucalyptus Robusta : or " Red Gum "— pro- 
perly "Swamp Mahogany"— is largely planted in 
Ceylon, so we quote what Mr. Maiden has to 
say of it : — 
•'• Swamp Mahogany."— A reddish timber, difficult 
to split, and rather brittle ; resembles blue gum 
{Eucalyptus saliyna) in colour. Much valued for wheel- 
wrights' work and for ship-building and general build- 
ing purposes; used for shingles; fairly durable for 
posts, especially in damp situations, such as the tree 
itself frequents ; yet, only a timber of the second 
class, being much inferior in quality to red mahogany. 
This and the other two mahoganies (bastard and 
white), are worthy of very careful tests as regards 
their suitability for wood-paving. 
Professor Warren gives the weight of some swamp 
mahogany at 75-98 lb. per cubic foot ; the same 
specimen weighed three years later gave 61*6 lb. per 
cubic foot. Baron von Mueller and Mr. Iiummel 
give the specific gravity of " air-dried wood " at 
(19-15 lb., and "absolutely dry" at 5t>--l5 lb. per cubic 
foot A specimen of swamp mahogany weighed bv 
me after having been cut nearly m years, gave "a 
weight of 58-6 lb. per cubic foot. I do not attach 
tco much importance to these figures, as to be com- 
parable, the timbers should have been obtained from 
trees grown under similar circumstances, of about the 
same age, and taken from the same part of the tree. 
It would be a useful work — to be undertaken bv a 
Government department or some wealthy individual 
—this determination of the specific gravities of our 
timbers. It would occupy the unremitting attention 
of one observer for several years to do it properly. 
Meantime we must be content with specific gravity 
determinations, of the relation of which to each 
0 her we know little or nothing. 
