8^2 
THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [June 1, 1900. 
Help for Depressed Indigo — On the repre- 
sentation of the Comiiiittre ai th<>. Ben£(al Cham- 
ber of ConimPice, the East Indian Kailway 
authorities have made arianp;ements wi'.h the 
IJeiigal an ' Ni)rt.h-W ^; ■.i.^Hy ihat freiglit 
charges on indigo s all be re lucel from thiid- 
class to secoiia c as.-", viz., from two- tin. is !;f n_ 
pie to half a pie per maund per niile. The iiiiiuia- 
tion of this reduction in Ircif^lii— wliioh is to c^jnie 
into force from the 1st July next— has been 
received vith much satisfaction by the repie- 
sentatives of the indigo industry in Calcattii, and 
also by the Behar Indigo Planters Association. — 
Friend of india. May ,3. 
Progress in the Wyxaad : -Tea, Coffee 
AND Pepper. — A Wyiiaad corresponctent 
sends us a letter which doesnofc convey 
good news to (Jeylon in one respect: 
for it speaks of a considerable extension of 
tea-planting as probable during the current 
year, the land being available and labour 
superabundant. But Ave should think pro- 
prietors, who regard "ths signs of the times," 
would be chary of speiiding capital on a 
product which is already in dauger of over- 
production. Very interesting is the informa- 
tion given of coffee and especially of the 
hybrid varieties which are said to resist leaf 
disease. But still more important to Oeylon 
planters is the information about pepper. 
It is monstrous after all these yeai-s of 
tir<^ing on planting attention, that more 
is " not made of this product ir» some 
of our Ceylon districts. There is no 
reason why it should not do as well in 
Dolosbage, Yakdessa, Kelani Valley and 
perhaps in the Matale's, as in the Wynaad, 
where we are told, from R250 to R500 per 
acre of nett profit is made. We do not 
accept such estimates as practical or reason- 
able. But even if these figures be divided 
by four, the encouragement is great in these 
days when it is difficult to fix on any second- 
ary product at all likely to be profitable on 
ordinary plantations. 
The West African Root Rubber.— Herr 
Baum, a botanist who accompanied ';he Kunene- 
Zambesi expedittion in behalf of the Colonial 
Agricultural Committee [of Berlin] made some 
inquiries in regard to root rubber. The district 
in which this plant (from its description probably 
Cai-podinus lanceolatus ) grows, is situated on 
the ooher side of the Cubango, and is so devoid 
of water that the natives going to the rubber 
root district have to carry water with them, 
and return when the supply is exhausted. The 
rubber is obtained by bsating the root sticks, 
and it issaidtobeso toilsome that a negro will 
consume three days' time to produce a piece as 
large as a banana, and even then it is mixed 
with stand and splinters of wood. Herr von der 
Keller, to whom Herr Baum is indebted for 
this information, asserts that the ro«t sticks, 
which seldom have a thickness of more than 
two Angers, contain at least 60 per cent, rubber ; 
also that the^ cannot be broKen, but can be 
stretched until torn asunder. In the gathering 
places the plants are exterminated by the negroes 
to such an extent, that for many years this plant 
is not to be seen again. The botanist Schlechter, 
the leader of the rubber expedition to West 
Africa, also reports on the root rubber at Stanley 
Pool [in t)ie Congo Free State], and states that 
the plant gi-ow.s on such sandy soil as exists now- 
here in the Karneruns, and its cultivation there- 
fore is mor« adapted to South-weetern Africa than 
to the Kamcruus.— Tropenpflanzer, 
Agricultural Chemist for Behar.— Pro- 
fessor K nvson, the able Chemist of the Behar 
Planters' Association, is now due in India, and 
will take np his quarters at Mussrie Factory, 
wh' re a bungalow and offices are being built for 
!)!'!! ; riiar^y concerns are going to use the learned 
i-'tri('!s>:yv-s ji.'i.Meni, oxi'iiz n.'.; proce.ss this year. — 
Indian Planters' Gmette. 
jAPAi^ibS!- I iiA. — Tiie quantity of tea exported 
from Japan durint; 18£9 exceeded that shipped 
abroad during 1898 ; but all the same the tea 
business in Japan is becoming more and more 
uiisati>fact()ry each y.jar, and for the foreign mer- 
chant at any rate, there is a little or nothing 
to be made out of it. In qualioy the tea of 1899 
compared unfavourably with the crop of 1898. The 
practice of picking the young leaves in the early 
spring before they are properly matured, for the 
sake of obtainin? exorbitant prices for small qu»n- 
tities i.s undoubtedly having a very injurious 
effect on the plants, and it is surprising that 
Japanese tea-growers do not realise this fact. Of 
the teas siiipped from Yokohama daring 1899. 31 
per cent, went to New York, 26 per cent, to Chic- 
ago, 14 per C3nt. to San Francisco, 26per cent, to 
Canada and 3per;cent to Europe.— Co;i*M/ar Report. 
"Maram Grass."— An old friend sends 
a copy of a Jersey paper with a glowing 
paragraph from the Melbourne Leader, as to 
the value of this grass in Australia for its 
"sand-binding properties " and also that it is 
"a splendid fodder both for fattening and 
milk production." This grass (botanically 
Ammophila arundinacea) is a native of 
North America, and therefore, though ac- 
climatized at Port Fairy in Victoria, it is 
a question if it would succeed in so warm 
or tropical an expanse as the sand dunes of 
Hambantota, for which our friend thought 
it adapted. It would be more likely to 
succeed at a high elevation in Ceylon if there 
were a sandy waste to cover ; but we cannot 
understand the Leader's praise of this grass 
for fodder; because Law, Somner & Co., the 
well-known Melbourne seedsmen — who should 
have every reason to praise where thisy 
can — while admitting its usefulness near the 
shore, says, " It is of no agricultural value ! " 
We shall send the Leader and the seedsmen 
(both in Melbourne) a copy of this note to 
learn which is right. The seedsmen sell Maram 
grass seed at Is 6d per lb., and it would be 
interesting and useful to make at least a trial 
of some of it in Ceylon. This is what the 
"Treasury of Botany" says regarding it :— 
A genus of Grasses of the tribe Arundineoe, in- 
habiting the sandy sea-shores of the coasts of Eu- 
rope and North America.and extensively cultivated 
in many places, as in the eastern cunties of Eng- 
land and in Holland, for preserving the sand- 
bank which prevent the inraads of the sea. In the 
northern parts of England, it is used for making 
table mats and basket work. It is the widely- 
creeping and matted rhizomes which serve to bind 
togeth er the sand-banks on which it grows. The 
stems grow to or three feet high, and bear long, 
narrow rigid involute leaves and a spiked cylindri- 
cal panicle, with laterally compressed spikelets. 
Theglumes are nearly equal, and lance-shaped, 
stiflfand chafify. The flowering glumes, or outer 
pales, are the shorter, with a tuft of hairs outside, 
but the inner pales nearly equal them in length. 
The genus is nearly related to Calamagrostis, from 
which the inflorescence, the stiff glumes, and the 
absence of an awn to the flowering glume, serve to 
distinguish it. The only species, ^. arundirutcea, 
or Psamma arenaria, is variously called MRram, 
Marrum, Sea-reed, or Se» Matweed, 
