Nov. 1, 1900.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
315 
TEA MACHINERY AND TEA FACTORIES: 
^ MR. J. A. WILLIS TAYOR ON THE SUBJECT. 
A planter, upon whose knowledge of all that 
concerns tea and tea gardens we can thoroughly 
rely, writes us as follows: — "I see thac some 
of the Indian papers refer to this book as one 
of ' exceptional interest,' but I fear that anyone 
practically acquainted with tea planting who 
reads this treatise with the idea of discovering 
new ideas or enlarging his knowledge of the 
subject with which it professes to treat, will be 
disappointed. I am under the impression that 
the author has never been upon a tea planta- 
tion or seen a tea bush, and this is obviously 
a drawback when wiiting about the cultivation 
and preparation of tea for the market. He tells 
us that the chemistry of tea is a subject upon 
which he has barely treated, but with the 
cultivation of the plant and the process of manu- 
facture or preparation of the leaf he has been 
forced to deal to a certain extent, in order to 
be enabled to describe intelligibly the various 
machines and apparatus employed. 
" In his reference to cultivation and manu- 
facture he trives the ideas of recent writers, and 
there are liberal quotations from the views of 
Mr. Christison and iMr. Crole, which are duly ac- 
knowledged. Ifail tosee therelevancyof the descrip- 
tion given of the various kinds of steam ploughs, 
steam draining, and ditching machines, and the 
different systemsof steam cultivation, as there is no 
attempt to solve the problem how they could be 
profitably employed on tea gardens. While ad- 
mitting that it is not altogether impossible that 
level grass land might be prepared for planting, 
and that steam ploughs in this connection might 
prove useful, I do not see, nor does Mr. Wallis 
Taylor explain, how such operations could be 
proKtably carried on, even if the steam cultivator 
could be moved about and kept constantly em- 
ployed upon grass land extensions. The idea, 
if it is suggested, thac these cultivators could be 
used upon forest clearings, planted gardens, or on 
hill-side gardens, is a somewhat remarkable one. 
As a preliminary to his account of tea machi- 
nery he describes, the author devotes some space 
to bridges, portableraihvays,steamand electrictrac- 
tion tramways, oil engines, refrigerating machines, 
&c., and here, no doubt, as an engineer, he is 
quite at home, but I cannot see the point of that 
which is written so far as its application to tea, 
or tea making or manufacture is concerned. In 
describing the various machinery used in the 
manufacture of tea, Mr. Wallis Taylor treats of 
some thirty-seven tea-driers, including machines 
that, so far as I am aware, never came ino actual 
use, and others that are obsolete. Even in deal- 
ing svith such a well-known maker as Mr. Jack- 
son, whose dryers are nained, no drawing is 
given of any but the iiritanuia, which has been 
superseded by an improved invention by the same 
maker. The chapters on Tea Machinery are ap- 
parently compiled from the Patentees' Cata- 
logues, with the addition of some illustra- 
tions drawn from the Patent Office. A study of 
the complete catalogues of the few firms who now 
manufacture tea machinery would therefore be 
much more to the purpose from a practical point 
of view than this elaborate volume. 
" In regard to tea chests, a list of woods from 
which they are made is given, but from the 36 
different kinds named the ' Toon,' decidedly the 
best, is omitted, while the reference to patent chests 
is altogether inadequate and incomplete. Th« 
book is well illustrated, is got up nicely and con- 
tains useful memoranda on variou", engineering and 
mechanical points, but I cannot discover thc.b the 
volume, the net price of which, I believe, is 258, 
throws any new light on tea manufacture or tea 
machinery.— //oi>i0 and Colonial Mail, Sept li. 
THE (CEYLOiM) PLUMBAGO COMPANY. 
The first ordinary meeting of the Piumbago 
Company, Ltd., was held on Sept. 12 at the offices, 
57|D, Old Broad-street, E.C., Mr. U C Ruther. 
ford presiding. 
The Chairman having expressed his regret ab 
the absense oi Mr. Pyman (the Chairman of the 
company), said the shareholders were aware that 
was only the statutory meeting, and as there was 
no business to transact it would only be necess- 
ary for him to take up their time for a few minutes. 
The company was registered on 16th May last, 
and the working capital amounting to £10,000, 
was fully subscribed by the signatories to the 
memorandum and articles of association, and four 
shillings per share had been called up. On 22nd 
May Mr, Alpine Wodehouse-Pearce was appointed 
n^anaging director of the company and he sailed 
for Ceylon on the 13th June, and since his arrival 
there, he had been and still was inspecting the 
properties in which the company was interested, 
and his reports were generally of a satisfactory 
character, especially so in regard to the Tal- 
gaswellajEstate. He (the Chairman) regretted that 
there had been considerable delay in the ship- 
ment of the necessary mining machinery on ac» 
count of the engineering hrms being so fully 
occupied, but the orders weie now completed and 
the last shipment would be made on IStli inst. 
Mr. William Shedloek was engaged as engineer to 
the company, and he sailed for Ceylon on 23rd 
August, and up on his arrival he will sec to work 
to erect the machinery upon the property selected 
by Mr. Pearce as quickly as possible. 
The proceedings then terminated with a vote 
of thanks to tlie Chairman. — Financial Times, 
Sept. 13. 
[To prevent mistakes we may point out the 
gentleman who presided was not H. K. Rutherford 
who has nothing to do with the Company. — 
Ed. T.A.] 
PLANTING AND SPORT IN TRAVANCORE 
ELEPHANTS GALORE— A BIG SNAKE. 
An ex-Ceylon planter writes under date 
21st Sept. :— 
"I think you will be interested to know that 
r shot a cobra at the Kaduakarum bungalow 
la.^t December, 1899, which measured 10 feet 1 inch : 
no snake yarn as I have the skin. 
"I resigned charge of T— estate to take up work 
here as a manager of three estates. These estates 
have been abandonjed for a long time, so that 
I have a lot of work before me. The labour is 
plentiful as all the coolies going to and from 
Peermaad have to pass through Placart through 
which the main east road runs. Rice, of course, 
is the same and I can buy it from R3*50 to R4 per 
bushel. Wild animals are abundant, as are also red 
deer, elk or sambur, bison and elephants. I saw no 
less than 33 elephants in a flock yesterday, about 
800 yards away from my plackers, and I believe 
