March 1, 1900.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
6li 
The layers are too long and I think that the weight 
of the layer presses on the layer beneath and thus 
crashes the eggs. Most of the eggs were found to 
be in masses closely joined together and completely 
spoilt. I think this is to a great extent caused by 
the weight of the layers abDve. The layers rest one 
above the other and when they are fairly heavy 
press on to the ova in the layer beneath. The rims 
of the layers are too narrow. The old large boxes 
had square layers with broad rims and it was im- 
possible for one layer to crush the layer beneath. 
In case they cannot alter the defect it is advisable 
to revert to the former boxes as a very large per- 
centage of the ova is crushed by this means. 
IHK OUTTtKN. 
The outturn of ova has been very low : only 
450 alevins hatched out altogether, out of which 
257 died and there are at present only 19-5 
alevins. From the first layer 230 alevins hatched out 
and from the second layer 170 alevins hatched out. 
No alevins hatched out from the third layer. 
The outturn from the top layers in the consignment 
for 1899, i.e., since tlie new boxes were used, were 
also very unsatisfactory. The death rate has also 
been very high 
Mr. Elhart .then refers to appendix C, pagel5 of the 
report for 1899( also drawing attention to the fact 
therein mentioned that the top layers did not 
hatch out. 
^ 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Messrs. Lipton, Ltd., have secured the con- 
tract for the supply of 10,000 lb. of tea through tlie 
Ceylon Court Paris Exhibition for use in cup. 
There were eight tenders, we understand, and the 
samples were put to severe and repeated tests, 
and that of the Company named came out fiist 
on each occasion. — British Trade Journal. Feb. 1. 
James Fkasilr. — In all probability the father of 
Scotch gardeners has passed away in the person of 
the late Mr. James Eraser, gardener, who died at 
Casrlehill, Turriff, on the 18th nit., aged ninety- 
eight years. Mr. Fraser was engaged by the late 
Dr. Adam, as gardener at Ardmiddle House, 
Turriff, in the year of the disruption, 1843, and for 
the long pariod of thirty-three years he conducted 
gardening operations at Ardmiddle with great 
acceptance by his employers. — Gardeners' Chro- 
nicle, Feb. 3. 
The Petroleum Trade.— On page 613 
wo give an interesting statement, sup- 
plied by Messrs. Delmege, Forsyth and Com- 
pany, regarding the present position of the 
world's supply of petroleum. Statistics are 
offered of the output from America and 
Russia during the past three years and the 
course of prices is also shown. All point to 
an increasing scarcity of the popular oil and 
consequently to a rise in prices Avhich the 
poor must feel a good deal in what has now 
tiecome so indispensable an article in every 
household. 
The Skason Outlook in Madras.— The fol- 
lowing is the Board of Revenue's telegraphic 
summary for the weelc ending the 17th February : 
— " No rain. Water-supplies are diminish- 
inp and generally delicient. Unless protected by 
irrigation standing crops are deteriorating. 
Harvest continues to yield indifferent outturn. 
Pasturage is scanty everywhere, but fodder is 
generally sufficient and cattle is normal. Prices 
continue almost unaltered. Four test works in 
Cuddapah attracted 917 men, 1,551 women and 
688 children, total 1,156 ; also advances given 
to 350 looms employing 864 men and 668 women 
weavers." — Madras Mail. 
Bananas in Queensland.— Brisbane, Feb. 5 : - 
Banana groweis in the Cairns district, wlio are 
almost exclusively Chinese, recently offered to 
pay the wages of an Inspector to overhaul their 
fruit before it left for southern markets, owing 
to the danger ot a cessation of the trade, on 
account of the number of diseased bananas leaving 
the colony. This arrangement proved so satis- 
factory that they have since offered to pay 
the wages of a second Inspector. The Chinese 
liave also bound themselves to pay a fine to the 
Josshouse of Is per bunch for all fruit found 
infected, and, should this occur frequently, to 
accept the refusal of the Inspector to pass any 
fruit from that <;arderi. — Adelaiffe Observer. 
Indian and Ckylon Roads.— Our old friend 
Dr. Workman, has been writing in " Travel "' for 
February, on " the adaptability of Indian Roads to 
Cycle 'J'ouring.'' There is one paragraph com- 
plimentary to Ceylon worth noting: — 
So far as the cyclist is concerned, I should class 
Indian roads as fair-weather roads. Such as they 
are, good, indifferent, and bad, he can get over 
them during the dry season, but I have seen very 
few roads that apparently could be used for cycling 
during the monsoon rains. In respect of construc- 
tion the roads of Ceylon are fav superior to those 
<if India, the metalling being more thoroughly done. 
I was able to ride many hundreds of miles in Ceylon 
during tbe monsoon, being frequently overtaken by 
drenching tropical showers, v;hich flooded the roads, 
without being detained an hour for them to dry. 
The Rainfall of 1899 —The aggrecrate rain- 
fall during the year justclosed was deficient over 
the whole of England, the dehciency amounting to 
6 inches in the Channel Islands, 5 inches in the 
south of England, and 4 inches in the east and 
south-west ot England. There was a slight excess 
in most parts of Scotland and Ireland. The 
mean temperature for the year was in excess of the 
average over the whole area of the British Islands, 
the excess being greatest over the southern por- 
tion of the kingdom, although it was also very 
large in the north of Scotland. There was an 
excess of sunshine over the entire country, amount- 
ins to about 350 hours in the south of England, 
and exceeding 200 hours over the whole of England, 
except in the north-eastern district. In Ireland 
the excess was about 150 hours ; but in parts of 
Scotland it was not so large. — Gardeners' Chro- 
nicle, Feb. 3. 
Cocoa Machine Wanted.— What is most 
needed, says the United States Consul at Asuncion, 
in reporting on the Cocoa Trade of Paraguay, is a 
machine which can remove the pulp and break the 
hulls of the fruit without crackinp- the kernel. A 
number of machines have been invented for this 
purpose, but as yet none has given satisfactory 
results. The Agricultural Bank lias tried a French 
apparatus, but the cost is too great to enable it to 
be generally adopted. In one part of the apparatus 
the pulp is removed from the boll and this is 
then passed to another part, where there are 
three cylinders — one with grooves to hold the 
cleaned hull, another with longitudinal knife- 
like projections, and the third with transverse 
projections. This machine costs about $850. 
AVhat is desired here is a machine costing, say, 
135. It must be remembered in building a 
machine that some of the bolls are large and others 
small. ^The kernel, when cracked, becomes 
unfit for the market. — British Trade Journal, 
Feb. 1. 
