780 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [May 1, 190L 
and three or four others will come out in its stead. 
The grape-fruit is a lainiug tree. It draws water 
from the ground by means of its deuse foliage, and 
exhales it into the air ; the rough leiBon is the 
same. Both will often cause rain to fall from their 
leaves on a dry day. The rough (Florida) lemon 
has the largest plexus of feeder roots of any of^ihe 
citrus family, and will thrive on poorer soil. The 
sour orH.ng'^, the healthiest of the family, hardly grows 
fast enough for the grape-fruit but if you will often 
split the bark from the bud to the ground, you will 
hasten its growth in size and strength, lu a plot 
of ground 210 .feet square I would plant 81 
grape-fruit trees about twenty-three and half feet 
apart, leaving a strip ten feet wide between them 
aud the fence, and in square between four grape- 
fruit trees I would plant fix by four tingariues and 
king oranges, making 145 trees to the acre." Our 
own experience poicts to the Seville sweet orange 
stock as being even healthier than the Seville orange, 
but as being a slower grov;er. The rough lemon 
stock makes a marvellously quick-growing growth 
but doubts are thrown upon it here as to whether it 
lasts long. . 
Another writer says :— The Dancy tangarine does 
best on rough lemon, grows faster, yield-j more fruit 
larger fruit and it mfrtures earlier. Grape-fruit 
does well on lemon or on sweet stocks ; on rough 
lemon you get large fruit 'on sweet or sour stocks, 
medium'. He has planted from October to Janu/.ry, 
and even in June ; but the best time is from Nov- 
ember 20th to January l?t, according to his experi- 
ence. Cut off half the top before planting or defoliate 
it ; defoliate it entirely is still better, It takes nerve 
to do this, but it is true wisdom. Tou hate to 
spoil the pretty top, cutting it all to pieces, but 
you get some with al! their tops left on and some with- 
out, and in a year or two you will surely wish you 
had cut them. See that no nut-grass roots are in 
the tree roots before you plant ; it is a great nuisance. 
Plant about twenty by twenty-two feet. You may plant 
125 trees on one acre, and 75 on another, and for 
the first ten years you will gather more fruit from 
the 125 trees ; but how about your son and your 
grandson? One orange tree is for a century, and 
one shonld not plant for his selfish gain alone, to 
the robbery of after generations. You can, for a few 
years, plant four or five rows of pineapples between 
the orange rows and do them no harm ; but be- 
ware of letting them stay too long. Bximine the 
trees carefully as to when they are ready to occupy 
the middles themselves. Apply two or three pounds 
of good fertilizing at ul-Antm^.— Journal of the .Jamaica 
Agrieidhiral Societi/'tor February 
. — - — " 
AERATION IN TEA. 
Aeration is a word writ large in every planter's note- 
book oeiug an operation employed in almost every 
process connected with tea cultivation and manufac- 
ture. The object of hoeing is to open up and expose 
the soil to the free action of the air, aeration of the 
soil being essential to the growth of the plant. In 
pruning also the bushes are thinned out to allow full 
play of air. In plucking, however, instead of allowing 
the air free access to the leaf nipped off the bushes, 
it is jammed tight iato baskets, the result being that, 
owing to the absence of aeration, at certain seasons of 
the year he.it is engendered, fermentation is set up, 
and the leaf turns red and emits an offensive odour. 
The fermenation is solely due to heat produced by the 
want of aeration. Needless to say that such leaf can 
never possibly make good tea. This matter deserves 
every attention, and if only teas of good quality 
are to be manufactured this season it behoves 
planters to make some arrangement whereby aeration 
shall be insured. One leaf gets heated in the baskets 
it is deteriorated and no after manipulation v/ili ever 
recover it. Withering or wilting is aeration pure and 
pimple, the air circulated over and through the leaf 
being cool or warm according to the season. The next 
piocess, in which aeration should always have place, 
although it does not do so, is rolling. Rolling always 
generates heat, aud the latest ma'^hines are so con- 
structed as ,0 a iniit of as much air as possible getting 
to the' leaf, so as to counteract the heat set up and 
caused by t.ie friction of the itaves one against the 
other in th^; process of rolling. The leaf should in no 
way become discoiourea in rolling, it should be dis- 
charged from the machine a healthy green colour. 
Rolling a'ld oxidation are two distinct pro- 
cesses, aud must on no account be united into one 
operation. In former days some planters used to roll 
out their colour, but no one dreams of doing such 
a thing now. Oxidation or colouring is nothii^g more 
or less than aeration , aool damp or moist air being 
played over and through the rolled leaf. For oxidation, 
pure and simpie, heat is not required ; if anything it is 
inimical rather than favourable to * the process, — it 
should iu fact be wholly eliminated. Finally, aer.;tion 
is everything in the firint; of the green leaf, aud in 
the final tiring of the diied and sifted tea. Ilere, how- 
ever, heated ai:: is the substi'-nce employed, being 
driven over and through the leaf or dried tea in the 
driers. Air then, either cool, warm or hot, dry or 
moist, plays an important part in every operation or 
process connected with the cultivation or manufacture 
of tea, save the very last stage, when the finally 
fired tea is packed in a lead casing which is soldered 
down to exclude the air. Aeration is thus a subject 
which requires close study, and more attention than 
has hitherto been paid to it, if good quality tea iu 
the future is to be the rule rather than the exception. 
— Indian Planters' Gazette, Mar. 30. 
FAILURE OF COFFEE IN BUKMA. 
We (th^ Rangoon Gazette) hear that Mr. de 
Souza".s coffee plantation at Tliandaung has com- 
pletely failed tliis season, all the trees having been 
attacked by blight. Our crop in ihe Toutigoo 
district have also been seriously afFecteil, but 
none to the extent of Mr de Sniiza'.s. Mr de Sonza's 
former plantation is to be leased for building 
purposes by the Government. — Times of Burma, 
Apiil 10 th. 
Planting ix Mexico.— We omitted yester- 
day to draw atte'ition to the interesting 
letter respecting " rubber " sent us by Mr. 
E. O. Darley, formerly a well-known Knuckles 
Planter. Mr. Darley should tell us a little 
more about his everyday planting life and 
the crops he is gathering in. 
Teak t'EESERVATiONiN SiAM. — Teak merchants 
in Siara are manifesting considerable interest in 
the new precautions for forest preservation, which 
are being taken by the Siamese Government with 
the advice and assistance of Forest Officers from 
Burma. The Goverpment is now bringinsr the 
teak forests of Siam under systematic control. 
It proposes in effect to considerably limit the area 
of forests now being worked, and to charge 
rentals in addition to the present royalties. It 
now issues the forest leases itself instead of al- 
lowing the local " Chaos" or chiefs to grant them 
as formerly. It is increasing, too, the limit of girth 
of trees whicli may be felted, so as to bring the 
practice more in line with that obtaining in Burma. 
The effect of all these mep.sures will, no doubt, be 
to somewhat limit the teak output while preserv- 
ing the lives of the forests. No diminution from 
this cause is likely to be felt for some years yet, 
however. — Pioneer, April 13. 
