200 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept. 1, 1899. 
benefit. Every tea-field in the neiglibourhood 
should be carefully examined for caterpillars and 
cocoons. Specimens should be distributed through 
the district, especially to native gardens. — Yours 
faithfully, STUDENT. 
B, C. AFRICA : TEA AND COTTON. 
REPORT OF EXPERTS AS TO QUALITY. 
Mlanje, B. C. Africa, June 9, 1899. 
Dear Sir, — I send you a report on tea and cotton 
grown here, which may be of iuterest to your readers. 
The tea was rolled and fired by my cook in the oven, 
BO that would account for any defects in the samples 
sent home. I have for some years made tea from 
time to time, and my servants know how to do it 
aa well as I do ; but the African Negro wants more 
looking after than the Asiatic : in fact you can never 
trnst the best of them. 
Mr. Moggridge made some very nice tea quite as 
good as your medium elevation teas from some leaf 
grown here and pronounced it a very good marketable 
article, and this gentleman has had considerable 
experience, at least more than I have had, of tea 
in Geylon. I am going in for extending in tea, and 
have considerable nurseries laid down. So Ceylon 
may have a dangerous competitor in the course of 
years in this country, for our climate and soil is Al 
and our laboar average only Udper diem. 
Many planters in British Central Africa would plant 
tea if they could get the seed into the country. The 
Nyassaland Co. imported a lot of seed with praise- 
worthy enterprise, but it turned out a failure as not 
a single seed germinated. 
The only tea in this country is from a few plants 
originally imported by the Blantyre Mission and Mr. 
J. Lindsay of Limbe estate, who got his lot 
from Messrs J. P. Williams Brothers, of Henai-atgoda. 
This is a good hybrid, but the jat does not 
come up to most of the teas I have seen on estates in 
Ceylon with tine large dark green leaves; but it is 
quite good enough and seemingly quite suited to our 
climate. H. B. 
Copij. 
41, Mincing Lane, London, E.G. Dec. 22, 1899. 
Dear Sir, — In reply to your letter of yesterday we 
have to report that on examination of the accompany- 
ing samples of tea from Thornwood estate, Mlauje, 
British Central Africa, we find them to compare 
nnfavonrably with the low grades of East Indian 
British grown and Java teas. 
The sample of No. 1 is a very small one, but it 
appears to be rather better leaf and not quite so 
mixed as No. 2, and in the present strong market for 
the lowest grades would be worth 4|d or 5d per lb. 
in bond. No. 2 is an unassorted tea rather rough in 
leaf worth about 4Jd or 4id per lb. The liquors of 
both are practically identical, being thin and flavour- 
less, but quite clean and marketable. 
The defects in the teas, both as regards leaf and 
liquor, are, however, in our opinion capable of re- 
moval and appear to be due rather to faulty mani- 
pulation than to any lack of virtues in the leaf. In 
the first place the plucking does not seem to have 
been very carefully performed, there being too much 
stalk and a coarse leaf. Again neither withering nor 
fermentation seems to have been satisfactorily carried 
out. From the brown appearance it would appear to 
have been withered too long and to have been dned 
rather than vnthered and the fermentation seems to 
have been very irregular. A few of the infused leaves 
are of a good coppery colour, but the general appear- 
ance of the outturn is too dark, althongh in some 
measure this is due to some of the leaves having been 
scorched in the firing; a lighter fermentation hjwevtr 
would we think, give more point and pungency to the 
liquors. The rolling process also does not seem to have 
been quite effectual enough. If after withering the 
leaf, the leaf had been rolled sufficiently hard, enough 
to break the cells of the leaf, the made tea would have 
drawn stronger liquor and have had a better " twist," 
With due attention to plucking and manufacture we 
see no reason why the tea from this estate should not 
prove of good com.iiercial value. 
We are etc, (signed) Wilson, Smithett & Co, 
The Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 
Copy, 
Secretary, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, to 
Royal Gardens, Kew. 
lam now able to report to you upon the sample 
of raw cotton from Mlanje, British Central Africa, 
received from you a short time ago. 
The gentleman by whom it has been examined states 
that it 18 very difficult to form an accurate judgment 
of the quality and market value of cotton in the seed. 
This you can readily understand since the process 
of ginning alters, often substantially, the character- 
istics of the cotton-especially with regard to the 
length and evenness of the "staples" and the pre- 
sence or absence of impurities. 
With this reservation the report is that the sample 
represents a long silky and fairly strong fibre and that 
in the ginned state it woul.i be worth in Manchester 
today from S^d to 3id per lb. 
"A BAMBOO IN BLOSSOM." 
Dea Ella, Madawalatenne, July 21. 
Dear Sir,— Not long ago I read in one of 
the Ceylon papers that a bamboo (Ceylonese 
unagaha) in blossom was a rare curiosity. Is 
this true ? I have seen a bush on this estate 
blossom almost yearly, and even today I got 
one brought to the bungalow, simply because 
I read it was a thing worth possessing. 
Would any of your observant readers kindly 
let me know if they had ever experienced 
a thing like this ?— Yours faithfully, 
AV. L. VAN D. S. 
[We read in Tropical Agriculturist of 
September 1881 that "Bamboo blossoms every 
15 years." Let our correspondent collect 
seed carefully and send it to the Director, 
R.B. Gardens, Peradeniya; also some flower- 
specimens. As regards the dwarf mountain 
bamboo and other small species, the late 
Dr. Trimen thought they might flower yearly 
Not so the larger kinds.— Ed. T.A.] 
GALLE AGRI-HORTICLTLTUKAL SHOW • 
A CORRECTION. 
Kollupitiya, 31st July, 1899. 
Dear Sir,— The gold medal for the finest plum- 
bago in the Island was awarded to me at the 
Galle Agri-Horticultural Exhibition and not to 
Mr. A. P. Perera, as was stated by a mistake 
m the local papers recently. He is the manager 
of my branch establishment at Galle, who on 
my behalf sent the article for the Exhibition — 
Yours truly, N. D. P. SILVA 
MR. CARRUTHERS: GOVERNMENT 
CRYPTOGAMIST. 
Dear Sir, -At last Cacao is to have 
another innings after all. Now that we have 
influential men at home alive to the import- 
ance of Ceylon having its own Government 
Fungologist, we may hope the N.D.P.A. will 
forward on a strong resolution promptly, 
and urge the importance of Mr. Carruthers' 
immediate return as Government Cryptoga- 
mist. Immediate, because the year before 
last he, arrived rather too late for N.-E 
