Jan. 1, 1902.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
485 
to ensure good and fair treatment to the labourer, in 
sickness and in health, and to protect the employer 
from the serious losses to wliicli he has hitherto been 
exposed throu<iii the dishonesty, extortion or cap- 
rice of the labourer. It lias been amply demon- 
strated that the ordinary civil law is inadequate 
in the peculiar circumstances of the plant- 
ing industry and that the importance of the 
planting industry is sufficient to justify special 
legislation. The Province of Assam, where the 
planting industry is not more iuiportant than that 
of Southern India, has for many years past had 
its own special labour laws and there are stronger 
reasons for similar legislation in Southern India, 
in that tlie labour here is more migratory. The 
total labour force in the Assam plantations is not 
much greater than those of Southern India, but 
whereas in Assam, at any rate six years ago 
when the Committee reported, the annual immi- 
gration only amounted to one tenth of the numbers 
employed, in Southern India it amounted to no 
less than fourSfths. The speeches of the Hon'ble 
Members opposite have destroyed my liope that 
there would be an unanimous assent to the intro- 
duction of the Bill, but I tiust that the further 
deliberations for which there will be ample oppor- 
tunity, will prove that the provisions wliich have 
been drafted after so much consultation fully and 
fairly carry out the objects of the proposed legis- 
lation. 
The following Select Committee was then ap- 
pointed :— The Hon'ble Mr Acworth, the Hon'ble 
Sir George Arbuthnot, the Hon'ble Mr G Srinivasa 
Hao, the Hon'ble Mr J N Atkinson, the Hon'ble 
the Advocate-General and the Hon'ble Mr Stokes. 
—M Mail, Dee. 16- 
« 
THE PITCHER PLANT AS A PLANT 
PROTECTOE. 
One of the greatest enemies to orchid plants in the 
West Indies is Balaltn americana— the Amerioau coek- 
roacb. Numerous are the traps devised and the 
poisons componnded for the destrnction of this insect 
and yet it does not appear to decrease in numbers, 
and regular plana of trapping and poisoning must be 
adopted by the cultivator if he is to keep his orchids 
free from these — almost ubiquitous— enemies. There 
are, however, natural checks which deserve attention. 
First among these comes a large spider, commonly 
though erroneously known in Trmidad as the 
"Tarantula." This spider with other large species, 
are very bitter enemies of the cockroach and assist 
not a little in preserving the balance of nature. 
When it is mentioned that one of these creatures is 
large enough to capture and kill a full grown mouse 
— an occurrence once witnessed in the Herbarium and 
recorded in Bulletin, January, 1895 — it is easily un- 
derstood how the cockroach falls an easy prey to it. 
Poultry and the larger lizards also feed upon the 
cockroach. To the barn-yard fowl, it appears to be a 
specially delicate morsel, as is recognised by the negro 
proverb " When cockioach gib' dance, him no ax 
fowl." 
We have recently observed the help given to the 
cultivator in the destrnction of these depredators by 
tthe various species of Nepenthes or Pitcher plants. As 
obey assume fall development, the pitchers developed 
in the end of the leaves, become tilled with liquid, 
into which the cockroach" is apparently attracted 
and eventually drowned. The liquid (contained in 
the pitchers) is of a similar character to the gastric 
fiuias of the human stomach and renders any animal 
matter lit for absorption by the plant, so that the 
cockroach is ultimately digested as plant food. The 
Nepenthes have been found to be so useful for this 
purpose that they have been deemed advisable to 
largely iucrease the number of these plants among 
orchids, as the damage done by -the cockroach has 
been largely decreased by their aid. The various 
species of Nepenthes thrive well in the climate of 
Trinidad and are grown in suspended baskets made.of 
cedar wood in a similar manner to orchids. — Trinidad 
Bulletin, October. 
PKIZE ORANGES. 
We have to acknowledge the receipt of 
some splendidly large oranges from Mr. 
HoUoway, Wattegama. They measure up 
to 12 inches in circumterence and lo^ ounces 
in weight, each. Have larger oranges been 
grown in Ceylon ? 
♦ 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA. 
THE NEW RAILWAY-TO BE. 
In a recent Illustrated London Neivs a 
plan of the Railway route to Lake Nyassa 
and some pictures are given. The Railway 
is to begin in May as soon as the rains are 
over. Things are looking up in Blantyre 
and I think there is a great future before 
that region. The African Lakes Co. is a 
great success, and Lord Overton, one of the 
leading men in that concern, has taken an 
interest in Blantyre and East Africa too. 
—Cor. 
« ~— 
TEA CULTURE IN SOUTH CAROLINA, 
UNITED STATES. 
We are indebted to Mr. Charles li. Shepard, 
of Pinehurst, South Carolina, the pioneer of 
tea cultivation in North America, for a very 
interesting, good-humoured and even amus- 
ing letter which will be found elsewhere. 
We can assure Mr. Shepard of our utmost 
good wishes for his success in all depart- 
ments of his venture, and we hope to look 
in upon him and his fields of tea some 
time dui'ing 1904 if he will permit us. We 
were as much astonished as interested 
when the Secretary to the U.S. Agricul' 
tural Department showed us his fine tea 
bush growing in the open air at Washing- 
ton, in March 1884, No one in Ceylon 
we feel sure, will grudge Mr. Shepard 
his attainment of a maximum crop 
of 17,000' lb. of tea from Pinehurst at 
the earliest possible date. All such tea 
grown on American soil might well be sold 
at a fancy price— so many dollars a lb. — to 
patriotic millionaires. The yield per acre 
is very good— for South Cai'olina ; but from 
small areas of one or two acres by careful 
cultivation, ordinary yields everywhere can 
easily be doubled. Nevertheless, there is 
probably no more interesting tea-growing 
experiment in the world at the present 
moment thf.n that of Mr. Shephard at 
Pinehurst, South Carolina, which is now 
brought under the auspices of the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture. Ceylon planters 
can never Avish to see such teattelils 
extinguished, even if their maxinunn crop 
rose to 170,000 lb. or to ten times the niaxlmuni 
to which, apparently Mr. Shephard ixspires 1 
