52 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July 1, 1900 
planter can be advised for what produce 
the soil is luost suitable. 
Prom here our way lay by 
THE COOPKBS' YARD 
where scantily-clad athletic Sinhalese, 
were busy, — some, moving round blazing 
fires, hammering hoops downward around 
the staves that bent before this pres- 
sure and under the influence of the 
framing heat within, while others were 
attending to casks in various stages of 
construction and engaged in testing the 
reliability of the finished casks. These 
were, of course, intended to hold coconut 
oil and a little further an immense yard 
was covered with huge oil-casks .all more or 
less seasoned. Tt takes jibont six weeks for 
a cask to be thoroughly seasoned and tested. 
Many of the new casks are out in tlie yard 
a very short time before the oil penetrates 
between the fissures and parts of the surfaces 
shew the exuding oil : the casks are then 
marked by the inspector to be " pumped " 
^ind this is done into another cask by means 
of a hand-pump. The Avorking of tbis hand- 
pump is only performed by natives of con- 
sidei'able muscular power, and the suppleness 
of their arms and wrists are brought into full 
play as the required twist is given to the 
instruments as they are raised and lowered 
with wonderful evenness. The unsound cask 
is then taken to have its bands tightened. 
From here we made our way back to the 
entrance at one side of which was a small 
building devoted to 
COIR WORK. 
In the verandah door-mats were being made, 
while inside, in th e nearer room ,mattinarwas be- 
ing pieced together, and in the further the hand 
looms were at work, producing the matting 
material that is used for special carpeting 
and also for ordinary matting. Bags were 
being made out of the matting. These, 
we were surprised to leaim, were in 
increasing demand, as they were taking the 
place of the large baskets for bringing tea leaf 
on the estates along Avire shoots. There is 
much to be said for the nevv article, perhaps 
even as leaf-holders on the backs of pluckers 
in the field? They are probably cheaper and 
are at any rate far easier for transport in 
an empty state. 
Proceeding to the opposite building, where 
the mill offices are situated, we were shown 
various specimens of extra refined coconut 
oil (such as one sees at very few Shows, even) 
and, in the course of further conversation, 
learnt more definitely of the magnitude of the 
work carried on. The acreage of the ground 
covered, as we have already stated, was not far 
short of 13 acres ; while as to the number of 
natives employed, we may state that in the 
oil mill alone, when it is in full working 
order, there are no less than 200 hands en- 
gaged ; while about 200 more find 
employment in the other Departments. 
We left Messrs. Freudenberg's Hulftsdorp 
Mills with an increased sense of the im- 
portance and i)ractica,l usefulness of the large 
and varied work l)C!ing cari-ied on there, both 
to tlie native .iiid the i)lanti)ig community. 
Before modern scientific manuring was 
introduced by this firm in 1897 and notice 
taken of it in an article in the Ceylon Observer 
that year, there were used in Ceylon for 
manuring purposes almost alone : — 
Castor cake 
Patent steamed bone 
Bone meal and 
Fish manure 
— a list which contrasts well with that of 
the substances used today, which we have 
already detailed. 
The Firm is sole agent in Ceylon for the 
United German and Austrian iKomas Phos- 
hate Works— the largest concern of its 
ind in the world,— and also for the 
United Stassfurt Potash Works, which are 
by far the largest manufacturers of potash 
salts ill the world. It is, therefore, natur- 
ally in ,1 position to ])rovid(> the best 
and cheapest basic slag and potash s.alts. 
The planter has many a want supplied by 
the produce of the Hulftsdorp Mills, froin 
reliable manure, made precisely to his order, 
to the tea bag— used for estate "transport, but 
perhaps some day to relieve the pluckers' 
baskets in the field ; whereas the native cur- 
ing his copra around his jungle home may 
always be certain of a ready sale of his 
goods when brought to the large mills of . 
Messrs. Freudenberg at Hulftsdorp . 
VANILLA CULTIVATION IN BENGAL. 
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT- 
During these last few years attention has been 
greatly drawn to products which were likely to suc- 
ceed in India and give satisfactory results. The 
cultivation of Vanilla has been taken in hand more 
than once, but somehow it has never had, really 
apeiking, a thorough trial ; the trial was not carried 
on long enough, although it was shown that this 
plant grows and ifruits in Bengal without any difficulty. 
The experiments in the Alipore Gardens have not been 
carried out on such an elaborate scale as were at- 
tempted in several places in Bengal some years ago: 
in fact the plants were here growing almost in a 
wild state in a mango grove, and such as they were, 
they served all the more to show what little trouble 
there is attached to their cultivation. This experi- 
ment has been conducted under the above-mentioned 
conditions just to show that anybody possessing a grove 
of mango trees can raise a crop of Vanilla without 
any further expense than the purchase of the 
plants to form a stock. In the gardens the Vanilia 
was planted at the base of the trees in good leaf 
mould, mixed with plenty of bvick refuse, as drainage 
for the young plants ; one put down they practically 
grew at their own sweet will, and soon attained 
fine vigorous erewth. If this was done with a view 
of continuous production, the plants should net be 
allowed to grow over a certain height, say fifteen 
f«et, as a maximum ; if allowed to climb higher up, 
the work of fertilising the flowers would become 
almost impossible. Last year, in the beginning of 
March, the plants showed their flower buds, the 
plants then were occasionally syringed, and by the 
10th April the first flowers were fertilized. At the 
end of that month the flowers, which had set, looked 
dried up but still stuck to the pods, which were 
then beginning to lengthen out. 
The main thing in growing Vanilla is of course the 
time when the flowers must be fertilised. This has 
to be done artificially. If left to themselves, perhaps, 
not one in a thousand would give a pod. This opera- 
tion is thus of the greatest importance, and should 
be done very cai'efnlly : on it depends the whole 
result of one year's trouble. The modus operandi can, 
of course, bi tter be shown than described, and it 
requires a little practice and a steady hand before one 
can do it quickly without spoiling the flowers or losing 
the pollen, etc, One must first of all prepare % 
