598 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEISt. 
[March 1, 1900. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Mica. — As a correspondent some time a<^o re- 
marked in an Akyab paper the resources of 
Upper Burma are plentiful in rej^ar I to mineral 
wealth, but searcli is required. We now hear 
that mica mines have been found in the Uuby 
mines district and also plumba^ro. Workinj; up 
is tlie cnly thing necessary. — Mnndalaij Herald, 
February 3. 
Sekd Distrirution in Amkrica.— The Depart- 
ment of Af^riculture began its distribution of 
seeds a little earlier this year than last, for- 
warding them south at the beginning of January. 
This year the seeds for distribution to ail parts 
of the country will consist or 13,000,000 packets 
of vegetable seed?, 1,560,000 of flower seeds, be- 
sides field and lawn grass seeds. — (" Washington 
Post.")— /io?ne Paper. 
Siberian Porests.— Tiie Kussian Ministry of 
Agriculture has assigned the sum of od.OOO 
roubles to be expended in the forests in the 
Governments of Tobolsk and Omsk, in accord- 
ance with the methods usually practised in the 
arrangements of forests in European Russia. 
Tiie ol)ject in view is to prevent the increasing 
destruction of Siberian forests- — From Journal 
of the Society of Arts for January 10th. 
Coffee in the Straits Settlements. 
— A correspondent writes with reference 
to the remark of our Siiniatra corre- 
spondent : — "$21 per picnl Liherian coffee 
won't make the Liberian coffee estate pro- 
prietor fat, since it costs him $18 per picul 
f.o.b. when his estate is in full bearing. $40 
per picul was the price going when the rusli 
into Liberian coffee was made four years ago 
in the Malaya Peninsula," 
Tea Drying.— The whole philosophy (says 
an Indian contemporary) of rapid, economical 
and thorough drying or firing of tea may 
well be summed up in the three following 
Eoints :— (1) The tea should be kept in gentle, 
ut effectual, movement, so as to separate 
every leaf from every other leaf and allow 
the dry air to get at both sides. (2) The 
application of as much air as can be in- 
troduced without blowing the charge out 
of the machine. (3) The skillful adjustment 
of the temperature of that air, so as to 
obtain the highest drying power without 
injury to the product ; in other words, 
firing without burning. 
BUBDING OF Mangoes.— The following inter- 
esting remarks which were culled by Mr Gollan, 
of Saharanpur, from a quotation made by the 
Queensland Agricultural Journal from the Bulletin 
of the Jamaica Botanical Departn-.ent on the pro- 
pagation of the mango tree by budding instead of 
the present laborious and slow process of graft- 
ing, are here reproduced for information: — " Bud- 
dimg the mango has been generally considered an 
impossibility but this is a nustake, because it is 
done by experts in Florida, and it can be done 
by others when understood. The secret lies in 
taking the buds from about the middle of the 
growing shoot where they are well developed, 
and yet not too tender where the colour of the 
bark is just turning from green to purple, and 
at a time just prior to a vigorous .stage of 
growtli in tlie tree to be budded. The shield 
method lia^s been used, but the ring or plate 
would b^ hettex." •^Agri'Horticultural Society, 
ffadras. 
Manuring Tea.— Can it be true that Mr. 
Joseph Fraser estimates the increased crop 
from "judicious manuring" — such as he 
reconamends — at 2(X)lb per acre. Take 
half our area as amenable to such treat- 
ment and Mr. Fraser will have to face 
37 million pounds additional of Ceylon tea ! 
But where is the labour to pluck 148 million 
pounds additional of leaf? Mr. Fraser 
nuist be ititerviewed by a Deputation of poor 
tea-estate proprietors ! 
Lagos Palm Oil. — The exports of jialm oil 
from 1894-98 were as follows :— 1894, £187,297 : 
1895, £2'i.5,.5.53 : 1896, 159,150 ; 1897, 97,590 ; 
1898, £97,337- From these figures it appears that 
the palm oil trade i.s less than hrlt what it was 
in 1894 and 1895. The falling-olf is attributed to 
rubber having become, since 1894, such a large 
article of export fiotn the colony, but owing to 
the injury inflieted on the trees (says the Gov- 
ernor of Lagos) from the reckless way in which 
it has been collecte<l, it appears certain that 
within, say, five or six years this industry will 
fall olf entirely. The export of palm-kernels 
during the past live year remains about stationary, 
tiie value in 1898 being £362,5.39. — C/ieoiwt and 
Druggist, Jan. 27. 
Tea Factories and Fire Insurance.— 
There was some reason for the Maskeliya 
planters specially interesting themselves in 
this subject ; for of the 18 fires reported by 
their Committee, two had occurred in their 
district, against two in Dimbula ; one only 
in Dikoya ; two in Madulsinia ; two in Pus- 
sellawa ; and no fewer than four in the 
Kelani Valley, where we should have 
thought the temperature was too high 
to encourage fires. We repeat the interest- 
ing table with the districts given opposite the 
estates : — 
Fires in Ceylon Estate Factories during a 
lieriod of eight years. 
Name of Factory. District. Date. 
Heatherley Factory 
Sudugauga do 
Bloomfield do 
New Peradeniya 
Factory 
Alton Factory 
Lynsted do 
Kinnuagoda Factory 
Great Western do 
Dunedin do 
Tembiligalla do 
Knavesmire do 
Sirisanda do 
Kanavesmire Sirocco 
Ferham Factory 
Battawatte Wither- 
ing Shed 
Dunsinane Brit. 
Drier 
Lower Haloya 
Sirocco 
CuUoden Factory 
Pussellawa March 1891 ~) 
Matale East May 1891 
Maskeliya Feb. 1894 
Hantane 
Maskeliya 
Dikoya 
Madiilsima 
Dimbula 
Kelani Valley 
Pussellawa 
Kelani Valley 
do 
do Jan. 
Dimbula 
Madulsima 
Pundaluoya 
Jan. 1894 
June 1894 
Jan. 1895 
March 1896 
Jan. 1898 
1898 
1899 I 
1897 
1899 
1898 
1897 
"2 
'3 
p. 
a 
3 
o 
s 
CS 
5 
o 
Nilambe 1897 
Kalutara May 1896 J 
A merchant, who has paid some attention 
to the question, writes, after reading the 
Report : — 
" I do not quite understand the paragraph in 
their report in which they estimate the annual 
premium value at R187,50b. But if that is a fair 
estimate, the losses amount to 2o'72 per cent 
of the premium insured ; whereas the experience 
of 43 British Fire Offices in 1898 as shewn ia 
Mr. Horsfall's chcular of 7th July, 1899, wag 
5612 per cent," 
