Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
leaves  in  destroying  injurious  weeds  in  submerged 
fields  is  founded  upon  very  scientific  principles. 
The  poisonous  properties  of  the  Adhatoda  on 
the  lower  orders  of  the  animal  life  will,  perhaps, 
find  for  it  a use  in  destroying  insect  pests,  and 
make  it  an  important  addition  to  the  Materia 
Agricolavum  in  India.'  ” 
Dr.  Watt  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  the 
utility  of  Adhatoda  has  been  placed  beyond  a 
doubt,  and  its  extended  use  should',  therefore, 
not  only  be  strongly  urged  on  the  attention  of 
rice  cultivators  of  India  wherever  aquatic  weeds 
prove  troublesome,  but  also  to  tea,  coffee  and 
indigo  planters.  It  is  probable,  he  says,  that 
in  Adhatoda  we  have  an  antiseptic  at  the  door 
of  every  native  peasant,  which,  if  not  useful  in 
the  treatment  of  sores  on  his  own  person,  could 
at  all  events  be  extensively  used  in  the  cure 
of  the  troublesome  maggot-infested  wounds  of 
his  cattle. 
suppose  that  the  excellent  wine  with  which  the 
early  travellers  to  the  East  were  treated  to  in 
the  “Courts  of  the  Emperors”  of  Ceylon  was 
anything  other  than  the  sap  (toddy)  from  the 
coconut,  palmirah  and  kitul  palms.  Even  in 
the  absence  of  any  literature  on  the  subject,  there 
is  ample  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Sinhalese 
knew  the  art  of  making  spirituous  liquors  from 
the  juice  of  the  kaju  fruit,  and  may  be  that 
they  also  knew  how  to  make  good  wine  from 
the  fruits  of  the  bilimbi,  kamarahga , ratta-billin 
and  embul-palla.  All  these,  except  the  lastmen- 
tioned,  belong  to  the  averrhoea  family,  and  all 
to  the  order  geraniacece.  It  is  well-known  that 
much  of  the  champagne  of  the  present  day  is 
made  from  gooseberries.  The  native  fruits  I 
have  mentioned  above  being  as  good,  if  not 
better,  may  also  produce  the  best  of  “ fizz.” 
The  experiment  is  certainly  worth  trying. 
OCCASIONAL  NOTES. 
When  coffee  failed  and  valuable  estates  in 
out-of-the-way  places  had  to  be  abandoned,  the 
buildings  on  them  of  wood,  stone,  brick  and 
mortar  constructed  at  enormous  expense  had  to 
be  abandoned  also.  How  many  proprietors 
regretted  the  latitude  they  had  given  their 
superintendents  and  visiting  agents  to  raise  such 
palatial  bungalows  and  stupendous  stores,  all  to 
be  lost  in  a few  years!  Had  these  buildings 
been  of  iron,  which  would  not  have  cost  half 
as  much  as  the  other  materials  absorbed,  the 
iron  might  have  been  removed  to  civilized  centres 
and  sold.  This  ought  to  serve  as  a warning 
to  proprietors  of  tea  estates  of  the  present  day, 
whose  young  managers  put  them  to  the  expense 
of  building  bungalows  with  bay-windows,  and 
stores  with  blocks  of  granite  which  cost  40  cents 
per  cubic  foot. 
Fresh  pepper  usually  take  a week  to  dry 
sufficiently  in  the  sun  when  a bushel  weighs 
42  lb.  If  scalded  in  boiling  water  it  takes  about 
three  days  to  dry  and  weighs  34  lb.  The  latter 
process  has  to  be  resorted  to  in  wet  weather, 
though  the  loss  in  weight  is  seriously  felt.  It 
struck  me  therefore  to  try  drying  it  over  a fire, 
and  this  is  how  I did  it  this  last  season.  Place 
a wire  sieve  over  a tea  chuloo,  or  a barrel  with 
both  ends  open,  with  a slow  charcoal  fire  inside, 
and  put  the  pepper  with  the  catkins  on,  till 
the  sieve  is  full;  then  keep  on  turning  it  with 
the  hands  by  raising  the  pepper  in  handfuls  and 
letting  it  fall  into  the  sieve  again  for  half  an 
hour,  when  the  berries  will  get  separated  from 
the  catkins  which  should  at  one  be  removed, 
and  the  berries  allowed  to  dry  for  half  an  hour 
more,  and  then  taken  off  from  the  fire  and  spread 
on  the  floor  to  cool.  After  this  another  half 
hours  drying  will  make  it  fit  for  the  market — - 
weight  of  a bushel  is  40  lb.  by  this  process. 
To  make  pepper  black  dry  in  the  smi  for  a few 
hours,  and  wrap  it  in  a woolen  cloth  or  blanket 
to  sweat— the  same  as  is  done  with  vanilla. 
Even  supposing  that  the  grape  vine  was  not 
known  in  Ceylon  before  the  Portuguese  brought 
it  from  their  country  in  the  sixteenth  century 
and  planted  it  in  Jaffna,  it  is  a mistake  to 
The  large  variety  of  papaw  recently  introduced 
iuto  the  island  by  some  Parsee  gentlemen  from 
Bombay  is  being  widely  scattered  in  the  Central 
Province.  One  planted  at  the  Matale  Hospital  pre- 
mises by  the  Superintendent  of  Crystal  Hill  estate, 
lately  produced  a fruit  weighing61b.  If  any  of  your 
readers  are  aware  of  this  weight  being  exceeded, 
he  would  oblige  the  writer  by  communicating 
the  same  to  your  Magazine. 
All  Products, 
TRAINING  AND  AFTER-TREATMENT  OF 
THE  GRAPE  VINE. 
1.  Training. — When  the  young  plants  have 
made  a fair  start  at  growing,  every  encourage- 
ment should  be  given  them  to  push  on  the. 
growth.  Watering  and  weeding  should  be  care- 
fully attended  to,  and  the  growing  shoots  or 
“canes”  supported  and  protected  against  injury 
by  winds  and  other  external  causes.  Liquid 
manure  may  be  applied  now  and  then  with 
advantage.  Besides  the  shoot  which  is  intended 
to  form  the  future  stem,  a number  of  small 
ones  are  sent  out  from  the  bottom  and  ought 
to  be  nipped  off  with  the  socket.  If  there  is 
a tendency  to  throw  out  too  many  branches 
close  to  each  other,  it  should  be  checked  by 
thinning  out  the  weaker  ones  with  a sharp 
knife,  while  they  are  yet  very  young.  But  at 
this  stage  of  the  growing  plant  care  should  be 
taken  not  to  lay  the  knife  at  all  heavily  on  it, 
as  the  leaves  are  very  essential  to  its  healthy 
growth  and  development. 
When  the  vine  has  grown  for  about  six  months, 
it  should  be  trained  in  a suitable  and  systematic 
manner.  Mr.  J.  Allen  thus  describes  two  ways 
in  which  it  is  trained  in  Germany : — “ I was 
very  much  interested  in  the  different  modes  in 
which  they  grow  vines  in  the  wine  country 
which  fringes  the  Rhine  for  so  long  a distance. 
I found  two  modes  of  culture  pursued.  In  the 
first,  the  vines  were  trained  up  a 6-ft.  pole  and 
stopped  at  that  height.  Six  or  seven  stems 
were  trained  up  the  pole  from  the  same  root 
encouraging  sidegrowths  for  the  fruiting  wood. 
In  the  other  method  one  leading  stem  was 
grown  up  and  bent  down  and  tied  to  the  foot- 
stalk so  as  to  form  a loop  round  which  the 
growth  was  made  and  the  fruit  home.”  Besides 
