Aug. 1, 1900 ] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
119 
who was the stumbling-block, and not the 
man who was ever ready to go with the 
tide and fit his work to the present times 
regardless of what his father did before 
him. I retm'ned home from my trip, well- 
pleased that I lived in a district where 
the practical farmer is practically un- 
known and the pushful, hardworking one is 
the general sample. Referring to the 
GOVERNMENT LECTURERS 
that have visited our parish, let nie say a 
word. The dairy-maid, who gave a course of 
lectures on the making of butter and cheese, 
received, I am sorry to say, scant courtesy 
from her audience, each farmer's wife or 
daughter, who attended, having openly de- 
clared that she did not know her work, 
because they each considered their own com- 
modities superior to anything that could be 
made from instructions out of a book. Here 
the cloven hoof of the practical farmer 
showed conspicuously in the behaviour 
of his wife and daugliter. The cook- 
ing classes, however, were a great success, 
the only fault the pupils h;id to find with 
their teacher was that she did not show 
them enough of \va,ys of making fancy bis- 
cuits, toffee and sweets of all sorts. One 
lady, a wistful ingenue of about fifty, who 
attended these lectures, and who is a bit of 
an amateur cook in her own way, went so 
far as to praise the work of the teacher, and 
what more could be wanted than that as 
setting the seal of superiority on her efforts? 
The laundry classes also proved Jie source 
of much improvement in the style of wash- 
ing and clear starching in the district. Far- 
mers, who formerly came to church with 
collars hanging limp-like around their necks, 
after the fashion of those of the late Mr. 
Gladstone, now have them standing erect 
at the sides of their heads, like the blinkers 
of a horse, and the flannel shirt front, which 
was once conspicuous at markets, has now 
given place to the immaculate dickie, like 
to the product of a steam-laundry. My own 
experience and observation lead me to the 
conclusion that the farmer who is constantly 
boasting about his being so practical is one 
whose example is to be avoided. His regular 
attendance at sales and markets seems to 
have the effect of transforming him, 
in a few short years, into a first-class tippler 
and a scandal to his relatives. When the 
reveille from the poultry yard Avakens him 
in the small morning hours after a market 
day, he possesses a thirst worth pounds to 
a publican and no liquor to be had, nor 
money wherewith to buy it. Then he curses 
his fate and wishes he had been appointed 
a parish councillor or member of a school- 
board, for well he knows that those who get 
the handling of the charities of a town are 
the ones who grow rich and have always 
plenty of money wherewith to quench their 
thirst and this he says with a blushing nose 
and 16 annas worth of scorn in his voice. 
How many of those practical farmers have 
I not seen, who, having lost their farms 
through drink and ignorance, have gravitated 
to the cities where they are lost in the crowd 
and the only difference their presence seems 
to effect there is the enlargement of the 
jiolice station. But enough o£ the aelf-style(i 
practical farmer, and as the Maori would 
say "Let the tangata haurangi (drunken 
man) slide." 
I am sure no one would fancy that any 
connection existed between 
THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE PEAT 
ROGS OF BUCHAN, 
but that such is the case, I think I can show. 
When our Government determined for the 
good of mankind to kill oft the few thousand 
Boer farmers in the Free States, they 
not only sent upwards of 100,000 troops to 
Africa besides some 30,000 colonials, but they 
called up all the militiamen and reservists 
in the country to go into active service. At 
first the farmers in Britain rejoiced at the 
removal of these, because those two classes 
of men are the lowest of the low and from 
their ranks come all the tramps, incendiaries 
and light-fingered vagrants. But when the 
time came for casting the peats, behold the 
labour for that purpose was found conspicu- 
ous by its absence — for these very reservists, 
etc., are the class that generally do this work ; 
and now we find the price of peats has gone 
up considerably, not because coals are dearer, 
not because peat bogs are scarcer, but be- 
cause the militiaman and reservist are wanted 
to fight for the shareholders of the mines of 
South Africa. " Sweet are the uses of ad- 
versity," some one says, but .however admi- 
rable that sentiment may be in the abstract 
or when applied to others, none of us have 
any desire for a practical and personal test. 
Therefore we object to the rise in the price 
of peats and wish the war was finished and 
our medal -bedecked vagrants and tramjjs 
told off to the duty of casting peats once again. 
FERMENTING TEAS BY .THE KEFKIGEK- 
ATING PROCESS. 
A VISIT TO DUNBAR ESTATE AND AN EXPLANATION 
OF THE PROCESS BY THE PATENTEE. 
[A representative of our evening contemporarv 
furnislies the followiiis- report regarding the cool 
fermentatiou of tea patented by Mr. H. T. Ariui- 
tage of Dunbar estate.] 
Tiie process of cool fermentation of tea up to 
the present, has siiown results of a highly satis- 
factory character ; in fact, so successful has the 
new sysieui turned out that ti is considereU that 
sniee its inauguration in August of last year 
the price of Dunbar lea has risen nine cents per 
lb. This IS not of course, divulging a secret, 
as the tact is made clear by a comparison of the 
published price list. 
THE PROCESS. 
The process which Mr. Armitage has patented, 
and for winch he holds the rights in India and 
Ceylon, is that of fermenting teas by means of 
a refrigerating machine worked by compressed 
ammonia and connected with hermetically sealed 
cold rooms by a coil or pipe, which enters a 
tank lixed above the cooling rooms. " One ad- 
vantage," Mr. Armitage remarked " is that the 
same ammonia goes through the machine con- 
tiuuously, so that you only have to renew it 
when a leakage occurs, ov something of that 
natme happens," " , 
