344 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 1, 1900. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
" Fire Insurance Tariff on Tea Gab- 
dens Buildings."— It will be observed from 
extracts in our daily that the Com- 
mittee of the Indian Tea Association in 
Calcutta have been considering "excessive 
rates " fixed for various buildings ; and a bub- 
Committee is appointed to report. Should 
not the Ceylon Planters' Association co- 
operate and work in unison with the Cal- 
cutta body in this matter ? 
" Indian and Ceylon Tea "—is the head 
ins of an article in the Investors' Review, 
■which we take over in our daily and T.A. It 
contains some interesting facts and figures and 
offers encouragement to persevere _ with the 
American and Continental campaigns. We 
see the Indian planters look to Mr. Har- 
rino-ton to tour through Europe and report 
on "the best steps for pushing their teas. 
Home consumption keeps up; but the war 
tax is strongly condemned. 
The Banana a Moral Evil.— According to 
the report of Sir H. Jolmstou, we may congra- 
tulate ourselves upon the fact that the banana 
does not grow in England. The idleness and 
vacuity of the lives of the natives in Uganda are, 
according to him, entirely due to this plane. It 
practically grows itself, and once it is planted no 
trouble need be taken about K whatever. The 
fee grows up, bears a couple of bunches of fiuit, 
and dies down again in rather less than a year. 
However, it throws up shoot after shoot from an 
undert'round rhizome, and these in their turn 
grow up into trees and bear fruit. A banana tree 
planted seeuia to go on for ever, and the only 
thing its grower has to do is to pick the fruit. 
— Mail paper. 
"Flimsy Mica."— This is the name that 
has fallen to the thin films into which refuse 
mica plates are split-says an Indian con- 
temporary-and which find a market, even 
though classed as " waste." The thin films of 
mica are used in the preparation of micanite, 
an American new patent, which serves as a 
cheap substitute for mica slabs of large sizes 
and is used largely in connection with elec- 
trical machinery. The films are laid out by 
hand with, a special gum cement ^»etween 
each layer and when sufBciently thickly built 
UD they are subjected to enormous pressure 
under heat and when cold retain the cohesion 
of natural slabs of mica, Mica is a great resist- 
ant of heat, and it has also been suggested 
that mica "waste" might be used to advantage 
for overlaying the roofs of houses in hot 
countries. The trade in " flimsy " mica is in 
its infancy and the prices realised seem to 
vary considerably with reference to colour, 
size and thickness, so that it is by no means 
easy to fix an average value for the pur- 
nose of calculating the Government royalty, 
which is 5 per cent, ad valorem, and an 
inuuiry on the subject has been dealt with 
bv tbe Board of Revenue. As a tentative 
measure the Board resolves to fix the valua- 
tion of " flimsy " mica, at the rate of 6 annas 
ner lb for spotted, cloudy and lined mica ; 
andof 10 annas per lb. for clear mica. The 
rates now prescribed will be subject to revi- 
sion at the end of a year in the light ot the 
experience which may be gained during the 
ioterval. 
Indian Coolies for Fiji.— The ship Khine 
arrived, from Calcutta, on Thursday, with 492 
coolie immigrants, after a prolonged voyage of 
ninety days. This is the fourth and last vessel 
due to arrive from India, this year. The number 
of passengers brought by the four vessels total 
some 2,000, while the departures amount to about 
400— an addition to the coolie population of 1,600 
people. — Fiji Times, Sept. 1. 
CiiOVEs AND Slavery. — As all the world knows, it 
receives its supply of Cloves from the islands of 
Zanzibar and Pemba; the yield last year was 
570,600 frasilas, or, at 35 pounds to the frasila, equal 
to 19,971,000 pounds ! This is tlie largest crop over 
reported, and was 8,061,259 in excess of that of the 
preceding year. Notwithstanding this produce, how- 
ever, the plantations are not being cultivated as 
they ought to be— a falling-off in this respect having 
become noted over since the edict abolishing slavery 
was promulgated in 1897. Nature has been very 
bountiful, but she must be assisted more by free 
labour than appears likely to be given by those 
"coloured persons " who find laziness more congenial 
to their feelings than moderately hard work. Attempts 
are made by means of fair wages to get work out 
of the emancipated slave ; he 's also templated by 
free grants of land in exchange for a certain supply 
of labour, bat the bait does not appear to take 
freely. Some effort has been made to raise crops 
other than Cloves, but the result.^ are unsatisfactory. 
Only time and every judicious management of the 
native workers rescued from salvery can be trusted 
to retain for the Sultanate that celebrity it so long 
enjoyed by the aid of slavery. — Gardiners' Chronicle. 
Rubber Planting in Tobago.— We direct 
the notice of our planting readers to the 
letter of Mr. Short, a Tobago planter, on 
the growing of rubber in the West Indiaa 
island. The reports of Castilloa growth in 
Tobago are encouraging, and in reply to Mr. 
Short we may refer him— on the point of 
obtaining rubber from seedlings— to the 
process of a B^rench rubber-planter in the 
Far East, which was recently recorded in 
our Tropical Agriculturist. In the case 
referred to the whole plant, bark and all, 
was taken and rubber extracted in paying 
bulk. We expect to hear more of the process, 
and how far it has been successful, before 
very long. The results will be duly published 
in o\iv Tropical Agriculturist. If proved suc- 
cessful, we see no objection to the close plan- 
ting, suggested by Mr. Short— except in so far 
as it is likely to hinder the rapid growth which 
wouid be the main object of such cultivation 
asour correspondent would then carryon. 
Sale of Quinine in Burma.— The Sanitary 
Commissioner of Burma «ays the scheme for the 
sale of quinine by post-offices in the interior of 
the province does not appear to have achieved 
much success. The Burinan villager is said not 
to appreciate quinine, and though ■^ome are will, 
ing to use the drug if given to them, yet few 
wish to buy it and prefer their own remedies. In 
some instances deputy-commissioners report that 
the use of the drug is unpopular, and recommend 
that the scheme should be given up altogether. 
The sale of quinine-powders by post-office sub- 
ordinates increased from 547 packets in 1896 to 
1,527 issued in 1899, but the number issued to 
other offices decreased from 1,553 issued in 1897 to 
998 issue 1 in 1899. In Buima, where post-offices 
are so few, the dissemination of quinine among 
the outlying villages is dependent mainly on the 
district officers, w'no take little interest in the 
matter.— C/te?nisi and Druggist 
