4?o 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan.  2,  1893 
handed  down  to  posterity,  I hope  you  will  allow  me 
to  oorreot  one  or  two  of  the  errors  that  have  crept 
into  what  otherwise  may  be  considered  interesting 
articles.  In  the  Peermaad  Distriot  coffee  was  first 
opened  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Munro  and  General  Steven- 
son in  1861. — Stag  Brook  was  opened  in  1862  by 
Mr.  Robert  Baker,  and  Twyford  in  1863  by  Mr. 
F.  G.  Richardson.  Fairfield  was  only  opened  in 
1866,  and  the  other  estates  some  years  after- 
wards. Your  correspondent,  in  alluding  to  the 
failure  of  his  own  coffee  as  well  as  that  of  others,  ba°, 
let  us  hope,  unwittingly  omitted  to  mention  the  faot 
that  the  Twyford  Estate,  some  400  aores  in  extent, 
is  entirely  coffee  still,  and,  when  I saw  it  a few  weeks 
ago,  was  in  a most  prosperous  condition.  To  the 
owner  of  PenshurBt,  doubtless,  belongs  the  credit  of 
having  started  the  first  Tea  Estates  on  Peermaad.  The 
seed  was  procured  for  him  from  the  Catisfield  Estate, 
Kotagiri,  then  the  property  of  Mr.  E.  J.  0.  Brace,  who 
is  still  well  remembered  as  having  done  a great  deal 
towards  improving  the  cultivation  and  manufacture  of 
tea  on  the  Nilgiris.  The  seed  from  Penshurst  was 
very  much  in  demand  for  many  years,  as  also 
seed  from  The  Mount,  whioh  was  planted  from  seed 
also  grown  on  Oatisfied.  The  owners  of  both  Pens- 
hurst  and  The  Mount  have  great  oause  for  thank- 
fulness that  they  were  induoed  to  procure  tea  seed 
from  Oatisfleld,  and  your  correspondent  is  proud  to 
think  that  he  had  a iittle  to  do  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  a good  jat  of  tea  into  Travanoore.  The 
Mahendragery  tea  was  grown  from  seed  procured 
from  General  Cullen's  garden,  and  I am  making 
enquiries  pt  Trevandrum  with  a view  to  ascertaining, 
if  possible,  where  the  General  procured  the  seed 
that  has  of  late  years  attracted  so  muoh  attention. 
Nov.  23rd.  “ Labcntub  Anni,” 
— M.  Mail,  Nov.  26. 
ANNUAL  ADMINISTRATION  REPORT  OF  THE 
GOVERNMENT  BOTANICAL  GARDENS 
AND  PARKS,  NILGIRIS,  FOR 
THE  YEAR  1891-92. 
From  Mr.  Lawson’s  report  we  quote  as  follow: — 
Season  and  Rainfall. — The  rainfall  for  the  year, 
as  registered  at  the  Government  Gardens,  Ootaoa- 
mund,  was  51‘29  inohes,  or  2-68  inohes  more  than  that 
ganged  the  year  before.  The  average  for  the  last 
seven  years  has  been  53'61  inohes,  so  that  the  amount 
registered  for  the  year,  viz.,  51-29,  was  about  the 
average.  Ootober  was  a very  wet  month,  in  whioh 
there  fell  the  unusually  large  quantity  of  17  07  inches. 
This  was  in  faot  one-tbird  of  the  rain  for  the  whole 
year.  The  weather  in  January,  February  and  Maroh 
was  very  dry  and  the  drought  was  trying  to  the 
smaller  and  younger  plants. 
Coonook— Sim’s  Pabk. — The  park  itself  was,  during, 
the  year,  maintained  in  good  order,  and  the  coppice 
mentioned  in  last  year’s  report  has  grown  apidly 
and  has  made  considerable  progress  during  tne  past 
season,  notwithstanding  the  dronght  whioh  oocurred 
during  several  of  the  months.  The  frost  on  several 
occasions  was  again  very  severe,  and  damaged  many 
of  the  less  hardy  plants,  especially  the  Acrocarpus 
fraxinifolia,  all  of  which  were  muoh  injured. 
Barliyab— Expebimental  Gabden.— The  storms  of 
Ootober  last  oreated  havoc  in  these  gardens.  The 
upper  portion  was  almost  completely  swept  away. 
Boulders,  3 feet  in  diameter  and  more,  crashed  throngh 
the  garden  and  destroyed  in  their  downward  oourse 
nearly  all  the  fruit-trees  which  had  been  imported 
from  the  Straits  Settlements  ten  years  ago.  The 
Dorian,  which  was  over  40  feet  in  height,  and  was 
an  exquisitely  proportioned  tree,  was  grazed  by  one  of 
these  boulders,  and  the  bark  for  6 feet  from  the 
ground  was  removed  entirely  from  the  stem,  with  the 
exception  of  about  4 inches  on  one  side,  and  it  was 
expeoted  that  the  tree  must  speedily  die.  It  was, 
however,  promptly  oovered  with  moss,  and  watered 
daily  all  through  the  dry  season,  The  tree  at  the 
present  date  is  not  oaly  still  alive,  but  it  produoed 
[01  the  first  time  this  spring  both  fiower  and  fruit. 
The  two  fruits,  whioh  were  quite  spherical,  were  5 
inohes  iu  diameter,  and  possessed  the  grateful  taste 
and  nauseous  odour  of  those  growu  in  Burma.  During 
the  same  storm  the  lower  part  of  the  gardens  suffered 
very  greatly  from  wash,  many  of  the  trees  having 
their  roots  completely  denuded  of  soil.  Such  a storm 
as  that  which  occurred  in  October  last  has  probably 
never  happened  before  on  the  Coonoor  gh&t  since  it 
was  first  opened  out  for  European  traffic. 
The  wooden  bridge  with  its  stone  pillars  was  com- 
pletely swept  away,  apparently  by  the  agency  of  a 
sirigle  rook  which  was  dislodged  from  the  upper  part 
of  the  Barliar  Garden  and  oarried  by  the  force  of  the 
stream  about  a furlong  and  a half,  where  it  was  at 
last  pulled  up  by  a bend  in  the  river  Many  per- 
sons  attributed  the  excessive  amount  of  rain  to  the 
oonstant  blasting  of  rock  on  the  new  railway,  whioh 
was  then  and  is  now  in  progress,  and  this  blaBtiDg 
may  perhaps  have  aggravated  the  local  atmospheric 
conditions ; but  as  the  rainfall  was  unusually  ex- 
cessive, at  the  same  time,  all  over  the  plateiu,  the 
blasting  ought  hardly  to  be  regarded  as  the  primary 
cause  of  the  storm. 
Economic  Plants — (1)  Bluegum  boiler  Jluid  extract. 
— A reference  to  this,  as  a soale  preventative  for 
boilers,  was  made  in  the  report  for  1889-90.  It  is  a 
bye.product,  obtained  in  distillii  g the  essential  oil 
from  the  bluegam  leaves,  and  in  order  to  make  its 
properties  more  widely  known,  in  January  last  some 
was  made,  concentrated  in  bulk  to  ODe-sixth  of  that 
whioh  is  ordinarily  used,  and  a (ample  was  sent  to 
the  Muir  Mills,  Cawnpore,  Mefsre.  Borham  & Co., 
Madras,  the  Bombay,  Baroda  and  Central  India  Rail- 
way, Bombay,  the  Commissariat  Storekeeper-General, 
Madras,  and  also  latterly  through  him  to  the  Commis- 
sariat Department,  Mandalay,  Upper  Burma.  The 
Manager,  Muir  Mills,  wrote  to  say  that  they  have 
been  able  to  obtain  the  leaves  of  the  Eucalyptus  in 
the  North-West  Provinces,  and  now  make  the  extraot 
for  themselves.  Messrs.  Borham  & Co.  wrote  that 
they  oould  not  report  favorably  on  the  extract,  as  it 
was  found  to  cause  an  accumulation  of  sediment  about 
the  cooks  and  valves,  which  out  the  latter  up  to  such 
an  extent  that  they  had  to  be  ground  down 
three  times  during  the  time  that  the  fluid  was 
being  experimented  with.  The  Manager  of  the 
Bombay,  Baroda  and  Central  India  Railway  Com- 
pany wrote  to  say.  that  they  had  sent  the  extract 
to  the  Looomotive  Superintendent,  Ajmere,  but  did 
not  want  any  more  to  be  sent  till  he  wrote  agaiD, 
and  this  he  never  did.  The  Commissariat  Store- 
keeper-General, Madras,  reported  that  it  was  tried 
in  the , Government  Bakery,  with  the  result  that  it 
was  found  superior  to  any  previously  used,  and  asked 
for  a further  supply  of  2 gallons  to  be  sent  to  Man- 
dalay, Upper  Burma.  This  was  sent,  and  he  was  in- 
formed that  after  making  careful  experiments  as  to 
what  the  cost  of  manufaotnre  of  the  extract  would 
be,  it  was  found  that  it  could  be  turned  out  at  6 
annnas  10  pies  per  gallon,  and  that  this  represented 
the  cost  of  the  fluid,  without  bottliDg,  package,  or 
profit.  Also  that  the  fluid  could  not  be  sent  ontiu  any 
large  quantities  from  the  gardens  and  as  he  had  an 
offer  from  Mr.  Wallace  to  supply  him  with  the  fluid, 
he  was  recommended  to  make  arrangements  with  him, 
as  his  charges  were  not  considered  exorbitant. 
Broomstick  grass  ( Aristida  setacea). — In  a letter 
dated  18th  May  1891,  No.  947,  the  Government 
of  India  asked  that  they  might  be  supplied  with  speci- 
mens of  this  graBs,  which  is  said  to  be  used  largely  in 
the  brush-making  trade.  Speoimens  were  obtained 
from  the  Acting  Collector  of  Neltore  and  identified 
as  Aristida  setacea,  aud  a report  thereon,  with  pro- 
perly prepared  speoimens,  was  sent  to  the  Board  of 
Revenue  for  despatch  to  the  Government  of  India  in 
January  last. 
[After  discouraging  reports  of  ipeoaouanha.] 
Jalap.— Some  years  ago,  Nilgiri  grown  jalap  excited 
considerable  interest  in  the  London  market  on  account 
of  the  high  percentage  (18  per  cent)  of  activeresin  whioh 
it  yield.  Mr.  Hooper  in  January  1891  examined  some 
samples  of  well-powdered  and  mixed  jalap  and  found 
16  per  cent  of  the  resin,  while  Dr.  Warden,  eq 
