8«6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Junk 1, 190L 
Nov. 1960. 1 pod 
lipened, though 
hnsk thin and soft; 
1 pod ripened, 
though husk thin 
and soft 
1 pod ripened, 
though husk thin 
and soft 
Among cocoa 10 
7 oz. 
— 39 
ii 
— 40 2| 1 5-16 
8 „ — — 42 2i 1 7-16 
and 10. The tree gave in 
last seven years 1,666 large good pods, cut out 
in November 1900, seed equal to 2 oz. for pod 
or say If, but cocoa seed last seven years— no 
pods turned black, 
was dying for 
truly, 
seed last 
but all ripened, though tree 
practically four 
months. 
C. 
-Yours 
P. 
OLD TEA ON DOOROOMADELLA. 
Gammaduwa, May 6. 
Dear Sir,— In your foot-note to Mr. H 
Cottam's interesting letter in your issue of 
3rd instant, you ask if the old tea on 
Dooroomadelia is still in existence ? 
The tea referred to must have been aban- 
doned years ago, how many I do not know, 
but many of the bushes still exist amongst 
the patna grass. 
The cinchona trees must also have been 
cut down long ago, as the field is now in 
heavy chena, but cinchona trees are still 
growing from many of the original ^sjbools. 
-Yours, 
MATALB EAST COR. 
THE TEA INDUSTRY: THE OLD 
REMEDY. 
Dear Sir,— I suppose the familiar Requi- 
eacat in pace might be adopted as the epitaph 
over Mr. Rosling's proposal to rest ten per 
cent of our tea land. As one of those who 
supported the scheme, I regret that it has 
not had a fair trial— both as a means of 
improving prices by imposing a check on 
overproduction which could be promptly with- 
drawn if new extensions were attempted, and 
of benefiting the estates by a cessation in the 
eternal round of plucking and pruning. The 
primary condition on which the scheme could 
be tried having failed, through the non- 
adhesion of an acreage sufficient to reduce 
appreciably the output of tea— the accept- 
ance of the inevitable is the most practical 
and philosophic thing to do. The necessity 
of a reduced output being recognised as a 
means of recovering prices, even by those 
who objected to Mr. Rosling's proposal, it 
remains that an earnest effort should be 
made to gain this end by more careful pluck- 
ing and manufacture, as advocated by your- 
self, Mr. Editor. But what is this but the 
old remedy ? I cannot recall how many years 
ago it was, but it cannot be less than three 
years since you issued a most searching list 
of questions, and elicited a most valuable 
body of evidence aVid opinions from practical 
planters on the best means of ensuring the 
permanence and progress of the Tea Industry. 
\i you look up the answers to your circular 
—were they not published in pamphlet form ? 
—yon will find that judicious manuring to 
keep the bush in heart, careful medium 
plucking, avoidance of hacking, strict atten- 
tion to the factory by the Superintendent, 
were the methods suggested ; and that your 
editorial endorsement of judgment in culti- 
vation and plucking, and infinite pains in 
manufacture, was unmistakable. So we have 
come back to the old remedies. Let us give 
them now, after our recent bitter experience, 
a full and fair trial. Sports and pastimes, 
like pruning, can be carried to excess, and 
may tell on the vitality of business. Let 
not too much be left to the Conductor and 
Tea-maker— whether plausible Jaffna Tamil 
or the docile Indian. If they can do all the 
work, the expense of a durai need not be 
incurred. Let the white man bear his full 
share of the burden, and all will come rieht. 
PROPRIETOR. 
THE KEA-PARROT OF NEW ZEALAND. 
15th April, 1901. 
Dear Sir,— Referring to " O. C s" letter 
in the Observer of 27th March, I may be 
able to satisfy him on the subject of the Kea 
parrot of New Zealand. When 1 first settled 
at the North end of the Wakatipu Lake, in 
Otago, great numbers of Kea parrots Avere 
to be found on my sheep-run, but they 
confined themselves to the ranges just under 
the snow line, and fed on hill berries and 
the fruit of fuschia and other trees in the 
bush, but I never heard anyone accuse them 
of being carnivorous birds. About a year 
after I left New Zealand the depredations 
of the Keas, on my old sheep run, began to 
be talked about, and from living high up 
on the ranges they took to frequenting the 
flats bordering on the lake, and their practice 
was — and is — to alight on the back of a sheep 
and, with their strong iharp beaks, dig into 
the back, just over the kindeys, and devour 
the kidney-fat. That is all they eat, but, of 
course, that is enough to cause the death of 
the sheep so mutilated. Many theories have 
been given as to their sudden change from 
fruit eaters to carnivorse, and my own 
theory may be as probable as any other. It 
is this- The birds had increas?d so much in 
number that their natural food had become 
scarce, and they had to look around for 
something else on which to exist. Probably 
they had begun on the sheep skins which 
are, usually, hung over a rail near the 
shepherds' huts, and had picked the small 
pieces of fat off these, with much satisfac- 
tion. Then an occasional dead sheep had 
given them opportunities of practising their 
strong beaks, and they thus discovered the 
situation of what, to them, appears to be a 
special delicacy — the kidney-fat. From find- 
ing out how to get at that on a dead sheep, 
they proceeded next to look for it on a living 
one, and thus, step by step, they gained 
their experience until, now, they are one of 
the plagues of New Zealand. I may mention 
that there is nothing singular in this change 
of habit in these birds. The starling is 
called " The Farmer's Friend " in Britain, 
because it lives entirely on grubs, insects, &c, 
and, for that reason, it was acclimatized 
in New Zealand. But, in their new homs, 
they increased at such a rate that their 
ordinary food ran short and they took to 
eating grain and, now, they are as much of 
a curse to the New Zealand farmer as 
rabbits and sparrows are. — Yours truly, 
" COSMOPOLITE." 
