Aug. i, 1899.] THE TEOPICAL AGlllCULTUEIST. 
127 
vantage ot tliis truly slack season to spend a few 
clays witli an old friend whom I had not met 
f.>r years, he having severed his connection from 
Ceylon quite ten years aeo and only reeently 
returned to once more toil in our midst. Of the 
journey to and back from Kalutara to Polgaha- 
kap.da I will say as little as possible. SutKce it 
to think I have arrived there with my framework 
quite entire. We took the shortest route out, viz., 
via Dodangoda : the last ihree miles or so of 
this road would take a lot of beating, -road ! 
save the niark, it was more like a newly-plonghed 
jiiddy-field ; my only experience of such another 
beauty in the highly-favoured Central Province 
is the .3^- miles from Katugastota bridge t:> the 
sixth milepost on the Galagedara road, where I 
have a small totuni. 
I'lumbago mining is much in evidence all along 
the Dodantroda route. Our driver pointed out a 
hillside phuited in tea and coconuts, with 
large embank-nients thrown up of clayey-looking 
soil heaped along the lower edges ot tliis hill- 
side. On inquiring as to what it all meant, we 
were told it was " Hector Mahatmaya " plum- 
bago pit, and that half the n:en employed were 
at that present moment working under our Peram- 
bulator. Pleasant sensation ! 
One does not begin to realise that tea would 
grow as it does in Kalutara until you are 
well within the hill-country of this district. 
Once passed the Dcdangoda toll bar, the 
formidable range of forest-clad liilla burst into 
view ; it will not be too much to sa.y that the forests 
of Kalutara are second to none I have yet seen 
in Ceylon ; the soil too is very friable, save in some 
parts where cabook is seen to advantage : but yet 
I have seen as good tea growing in cabooky soil 
as would well compare with the tea growing on 
Kalutara's best alluvial deposits. 
Heatherley, Pantiya, Clontarf, arnl Polgaha- 
kanda estates, which I have seen, would be hard to 
beat. On the lirst naniei totuin an all-rounil yield 
of 5501b. per acre was almost secured for the year 
ending 30tli June, so said the young Superinten- 
dent ! On Polgahakanda 500 lb. per acre is ex- 
pected for 1899, 31st December, and with ^ood 
reason. This estate is looking in line heart under 
the able management of my good ol.l friend. 
Nothing less was to bo expecteil. 
We had a very pleasant time of it, the 
proverbial hospitality f f the planters not being 
one shade behind in Kalutara to that of the 
general run. In fact, my genial host and 
iiostess will take the places anywhere. Polgaha- 
kanda has a factory quite suited to its wants 
a brand new (8 or 10 H P.) horizontal engine 
supplying the |)ower. Up to date rollers and 
desiccators were in full swing, taking the leaf— 
heaps of witliering accommodation. The wind and 
rain was much in evidence ; yet the flush was 
therein appreciable quantities. Would I could say 
the same of i/ie country where Noah launched his 
cruiser. 
Clontarf has a new factory in course of con- 
struction. Taking this district as a whole, my 
own impression is that the tea estates in the 
"Richmond of Ceylon" will take a lot of 
beating. C, T, 
. OIL ENGINES. 
Hattoi], Jtily 6. 
JJeAb Sir,— 1 see in yoiiv paper of 5th 
that one of your correspondents that stick to 
facts or your F.D, has made a mistake. I 
allude to paragraph " Oil BngiuB "—-you there- 
in state oil engines doing most satisfactory 
work in Kelani Valley, &c., &c. The cost of 
" oil not exceeding half-cent per lb. tea." Now, 
Mr. Editor, I take that statement with a 
pinch of salt. Up this side I am told 2 cents 
per lb tea is about the cost, and I have heard 
of one man somewhere in Matale East, who 
says he can do it for one and half-cent. 
Could you .give me the address of your half- 
cent friend so that we may able to do like^ 
wise ? — Yours faithfully, 
PLANTER. 
[Our Kelani Valley friend will, we have 
no doubt, allow "Planter" to inspect liis 
oil engines and see how cheaply they work. — 
Ed. tTa.] 
^ 
Aerated Waters and Tea.— It was not so 
very long ago that the sickness on board of a 
favourite passenger ship of a favourite line call- 
ing here w:is traced to bad ice taken on board 
at Port Said. Our own leading Ice and Aerated 
Companies enjoy a high reputation ; but it would 
be_ well tliat it should be generally known tliat 
neither freezing nor ^rating renders impure water 
pure. An Indinn contemporary contains the fol- 
lowing useful warning: — 
There is a general impression among residents in 
India that aerating water destroys any bacteria that 
it contains, but it has remained for an Italian physi- 
cian to dispel this cherished delusion. This investi- 
gator found that bacteria grew and flourished when 
subjected to a pressure of carbonic acid gas equal to 
fifty five atmospheres, and that the liveliness of the 
typhoid bacillus was in no way affected by being ex- 
posed to au uninterrupted current of the gas. The 
durity or otherwise of a mineral water is, therefore, 
dependent entirely on the care oxercised by the [manu- 
facturer in boiling and sterilizing the original m'edium. 
The extent to, which this is carried out may be gathered 
from the fact it was ascertained during a cholera epi- 
demic last year, that not one of the European manu- 
acturers of ajrafced waters in one of our largest sta- 
tions either boiled or filtered the water from which 
fheir mineral waters were manufactured 
Patent Tea Machikery — We have received 
from W. J. McDonnell, of the Ceylon P.W.D., 
soiiiC particulars of his patent tea-leaf cooler and 
oxidiser which had a successful trial in Cevlon 
last year. The apparatus consists of a blower con- 
nected by means of a pipe with the recei)tacle of a 
tea rolling machine. The receptacle is made with a 
lid or air-tight cover, to which the pipe leading 
from the Idower is attached, and, on the air supplier 
being put into motion, a mid-current of air, of the 
temperature of the fiurrounding atmosphere, is made 
to permeate, with a downward action, the mass of 
leaf being rolled, keeping it cool and aiding oxida- 
tion. The covered in top or lid, together with the 
downward motion of the air, tends to retain the 
flavour in the leaf, which in the ordinary receptacle 
ris'^s with the warm air through the open or partly 
open top and escapes by reason of its specihc gra- 
vity, int.Q the cooler atmosphere above the recep- 
tacle. An obvious advantage is claimed for this 
system, as the loss of flavour, due to the heatinw 
of the leaf duiing the process of rolling, cannol 
afterwards be remedied, no matter what treatment 
the leaf undergoes later on, nor iiow cool it may 
be kept. The apparatus has been successfully used 
it is stated, with results varying from Jd to Id per 
lb. over prices obtained for teas niade alongside in 
the ordinary manner. It is recommended that the 
blower le placed outside the factory, in order that 
the leaf may be treated with air of a lower temper- 
atare than that of the rolling room,— J/idiare 
Ea-iUrn Engmcer, May. 
