May 1, .1903.1 TSE TROPrCA.L AGRICtJLTURlST. 
758 
that have been considered too inaccessible so far to 
stock iu the ordinary way. If netting for trout is legal, 
ieed in salt or breakish water, this supply for stookiog 
the l ivers n iturally with a large breed of trout will be 
much rpduced, a d the stocking of the whole country 
retarded. It is not possible to avoid tiiking trout 
occ-isionally when nt-t fi-;hi' g for other fi--,h off tlie 
coast or in tl.e estuaries, but it is possible to 
return a great many alive to the water, and it is 
better to try this wilb some failures. I have for 
the last few years returned more than three-fourths 
of the trout of rU sizes I have caught on the rod 
to the water, and not one haa failed to recover and 
swim away. Among these were seven-pound fish. I 
did not want them. It is quite common to over- 
fish a stream without using nets. The rivers of this 
country have become celebrated for their large sea- 
run trout. This is because there has been no organised 
netting for trout iu or about the estuaries or lower 
parts of the rivers. The sea-run trout (not salino 
trutta or saliuo salar) in some of the North of 
England and Scotch rivers are just as large 
and in great number, but the salmon nets prevent 
nearly all of them ascending the rivers until close 
time, when it is illegal to take them, and so many 
anglers hardly know of their existence. I have 
caught them in the Tweed (Scotland) up to eleven 
pounds, and have seen them caught twenty pounds 
weight in the same river. Lately I saw a trout of 
39i lb. had been taken with a salmon fly at the 
ontlet of a Scotch lake. I am not quite a novice 
in net and sea fishing. I have been through it all 
from herring to cod. 
More caution sh uld be exercised in allowing in- 
sufficiently informed people to deal with these things. 
The introduction of th - poorest of anything tn,i,t 
can be called game — the rabbit and other 
pests — has ruined the game shooting of the whole 
country. Now we are bavins? ' white li=;h ' introduced 
to our lakes already stocked with trout. They can 
only be taken in nets, so tiiat if they are to be taken 
at all the trout must be netted. It is quite a different 
thing to accept and mnke the best of these things, 
where Nature has placed them, and to introduce 
doubtful things to a country in which they are not 
indigenous. A much more valuable fish for the table 
than the ' white fish ' " and a freer riser than the 
brown or even rainbow trout, in lake or river con- 
nected with the sea, is the while trout (salino trutta). 
and much more likely to rem-iiii on our coasts than 
the salmon. — New Zealand Mail, March 4. 
GIANT LAND-TORTOISES. 
"In the lonp;-past days when the plains of 
India were the home of iha mighty .sivatlieriiini 
and of still more gif;niitic elepiiants and mas- 
todons, while its rivets were tenanted by liippo- 
potamusea and liuf^e loDg-snouted, gavial-like 
crocodiles, that countiy was likewise inhabited," 
writes Mr. Lyddekker in Knowledge for March, 
" by the most gigantic land-tortoise of which 
we at i)resent have any knowledge. When frag- 
ments of its fossilised shell and more or less 
nearly complete specimens of its limb-bone came 
under the notice of its original describers it was 
thought, indeed, that they indicated a creature 
of truly colo,ss;il proportions, the length of the 
shell in a straight" line being estimated at no less 
than twelve feet three inches. In a restoration 
of the shell made under the superintendence of 
the discoverers of the species, and still exhibited 
in the geological department of the Natural 
History Mustuin, the length was reduced to a 
little over eight feet. But even these reduced 
dimensions appear to be considerably in excess 
of the reality and it is probable that the maximum 
length did nob nuich exceed six feet. A shell 
of this size vastly exceeds, liowever, that of any 
modern land-tortoise, so that the .Siwalik tortoise, 
or ' Tr;studo atlas,' as it is scientiliMlly called, i.s 
fully entitled to r.mk as tiie renl giant of its 
kind. ... In modern times the islands most 
famous for tiiese tottoises are tlio.«e(jf tl.e G ;la- 
pago-' group, whicii take their title from one of 
tiie Spatiisli names (i;a'i\jiag.i) for a tortoise, iinfl 
are situated on the equator, a comparatively 
short distance off the western coait of S.)Uth 
America. All the other ' tortoise-i lands ' are in 
the Indian Ocean, where t!iey lie (i\ith tlie ex- 
ception of the lower extremity of Madagascai) 
within the southein tro))ic, ofl' the African 
coast ... In the Aldabra tortoises the only 
meiuber of the group surviving in a wild state 
in its native habit:at is the South Aidabra 
' Festtido daudini.' A mile of this species, received 
by Mr, Rothschild in 1897, is the largest ktiowu 
example of modern giant tortoise-', the le'igth of 
the carapace in a straight line being no le.ss than 
55 inches, or only 19 inches short ol the length 
assigned to that of the extinct T. atlas." 
NILGIRI PLANTING NOTES. 
TEA PLANTERS FROAI ASSAM. 
A group of estates near Colicumbay Ins just 
been sold to two tea planters from Assam, The 
properties consist of the Terraraia, PemOroke and 
Cars'iialton estates, comprising about 600 acres of 
land, of which about 200 acres are under tea and 
100 acres under coffee. It is said that the purchasers 
intend to open out all the uncultivated laud in tea 
and make a big concern. It is significant that 
planters long resident in that well-known tpa« 
jM'oducing District should leave it to settle on the 
Nilgiris, and one is inclined to seek the reason. It 
must be that the labour ditliculty iu Assam is pre- 
ventive of any profits being made in these times 
where large advances have to be made to the 
coolies, li75 per head and even more, and where 
Gove>rnment interference is so irksome. The plant- 
ers here will no doubt hail tlie advent of these 
newcomers as they will be sure to carry out econo- 
mical methods and keep down the rates of pay 
which have a tendency to rise of late years, and 
would undoubtedly run high but for the fall iu 
prices. 
NILcflRI TEA. 
Nilgiri tea is noted for its peculiar aroma, is de- 
licious when used alone, and is bought by dealers 
to make a blend with the coarser-tasting tea, grown 
at a lower elevation, to give it flavour. 3ome good 
sales hav« taken place lately, the average froiu one 
estate realising as much as 9J a pound, a very re- 
munerative price if the yield is fair. 
SALE OF THE MOYAR ESTATES. 
The Moyar coffee estates belonging to Lady 
Soutet have just been bought by MrE G Wimlle 
at a figure indicative of the lo v prices. — Madras 
Mail, March 28. 
♦ 
GREEN TEA MACHINERY AND 
MANUFACTURE. 
(To the Editor, " Iiician P.nnfcrs' Gazette." J 
Sir, — I thank you tor your coinplimeniary 
mention of my name (on page '111 of ycuir issue 
of 21st February) iu rc the bringing about of 
what promises to be a solution of the proMem of 
over production of " black teas.". ..I now claim that 
we have solved the problem of Panuing ami Fi«ish« 
