Sept. 1, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGRICLTLTURIST. 189 
why Ceylon should not put a few thousand pounds' 
woi tli on the London market. 
Intending cultivators should bear in mind cliiU, 
while the acuial growing of the p ,uit and tlie 
fertilising of the flowers are quite simple, the 
proper " curing" of the fruit is by no means simple 
or easy ; in fact, it is a very ticklish operation, 
especially in our climate, which seems t9 favour 
the development of " moukliness " on the surface 
of the "cured " fruits. Vanilla tainted by mould 
fetches quite nominal prices— 35 or so per lb. 
Much care is required also to bring out the ai oma 
to its fullest extent, and to s) conduct tiie 
"sweating" stage as to produce the •' t'rosied " 
appearance, whicii is taken, to a great extent as 
the criterion of quality. Vanilla has uadorj^'^ne 
a serious droj) in prices within the last year. 
Last July the finest long-frosted beans fetched 
some 32s per lb. ; while the same quality beans 
now bring from 19s to 22s per lb. Other grades 
have dropped proportionately. Vanilla cultiva- 
tion could be ea.sily overdone, as there is but a 
certain limited demand for the spice.— I am, dear 
sir, yours truly, OKCHID. 
July 26. 
Dear Sie, — Your correspondent "C.A.C. ' records 
the total failure of the planting of over 100 
vanilla cuttings on ru estate in the Souiliern 
Province. The cause of feature, or at least one good 
reason for it, was evidently the small size of the 
cuttings plauTed. To be successful, theae should be 
at least four joints in length ; five leaved cuttings are 
even better. They should be planted with two eyes 
below the surface and the third just level with it, 
the soil being well mixed with dead leaves and litter. 
An essential to good growth is permanent moisture 
without damp, that is to say, without stagnation ; 
good drainsge is necessary. The vines grow well up 
many soft-wooded trees such as the indigenous 
Erythrina {E. indica) and the writer has seen plants 
growing, with a profusion of tine pods on them, over 
old stone walls of dismantled buildings and even over 
moderate sized rocky boulders, of course under shade. 
When grown-up trees the viues should be turned down 
over the lowest branch and led down to the ground 
to root again : in this way the fl.owers are all within 
easy reach for artificial fertilisation. 
The pods, if gathered before they are ripe, will 
always split just as cardamom capsules do : they 
should be gathered as soon as they begin to turn 
yellowish at the tips. — Yoirrs faithfully, B. 
GAME PKESEIiVATION. 
July 25. 
Dkar Sir,— The article you quote from 
the " Ceylon Forester" (see page 173) raises 
an important point. If tiie close season, as 
is suggested, is abolished and sanctuaries for 
game are established, who is going to look after 
them ■? They would have to be very numerous, 
if not very large, so as to be close together, or 
a large proportion of game would have no refuge 
in the breeding season. Would the headmen be 
sufficient to protect them ? 
'I he value of the proi)osal is considerably re- 
duced in the very next sentence, in whicl! it is 
snsrgested that special licenses, with laige fees, 
might be is.sued for shooting within these sanc- 
tuaries, penalties being inflicted for shooting does 
or young ! 
The question of gun licenses is dealt with in 
an airy way, but owners of guns used merely 
for protection of property would naturally object 
to be taxed at the same rate as sportsmen. If 
the Game Association is ia want of funds to 
pay for watchers and informers, it should agitate 
for a license on the manufacture ot guns in the 
island: ihe oumlier nri^iluedd loeaily is not -,niail. 
— Yours Taithfuily, ' Mi^lXIiVIS, 
THE SALE OF RUBBISH AS TEA, 
July 25. 
Bear Sir, — You have on many occasions called 
attention to the numerous instances in which vil- 
lainous trasli has been sold as Ceylon tea, but 
we seem to he no nearer a solution of the diffi- 
culty of suppressing this malpractice. A corre- 
spondout suggested in your columns some six 
months ago, tiiat the names of all local buyers of 
teas below 12 cts., should be published with the 
weekly sale lists. Why not? 
The Commissioner who is spending large sums 
of money in pushing the sale ot Ceylon tea in 
America, lately called attention to a consignment 
of tea valued at2|il, but stated that he was not at 
lilierty to disclose the estate's name I Again, 
why not '! If the tea had been worth two shillings 
instead of two-pence, American dictionaries 
would have been ransacked for terms to proclaim 
its virtues : the Commissioner's false modesty 
will prove expensive to the Ceylon tea enterprise. 
Can vve do nothing in C'ej'loii to check the 
shipping of worthless teas ? Have our Colombo 
tea-testers no fixed limits to separate tea from 
rub'oish ? At last week's sale over 21,000 lb of 
dried tea leaves in some form or other were 
sold at 12 cts per lb., and over 24,000 lb at still 
lower prices. It all this was fit for human con- 
sumption, the producers are being robbed : if not, 
tlie Public Analyst should interfere and order its 
destruction.— Y^ours faithfully, DUST-BIN. 
THE FLORIDA VELVET BEAN. 
July, 27. 
Dear Sir, — I should be greatly obliged if you 
or any of your agricultural readers could tell me 
whether the much-talked-of velvet Bean of Flo- 
rida has yet been grtiwn in Ceylon. From all 
accounts it is a plant deserving of cultivation, 
in at least all sub-tropical countries, being wonder- 
fully productive as a forage plant, hand.some as 
an ornamental climber, and the bean useful as 
a table vegetable. Its nutritive properties have 
api)arently not attracted attention until within 
the last two years, and now it seems to be 
booming in America, Australia, and Southern 
Europe. Stock of all kind feed greedily upon 
it — the foliage, vines, and beans ; and belong- 
ing to the pea family, its merits as a soil ferti- 
liser are said to be very prominent. 
—Yours faithfully, INQUIRER. 
Colombo, July 29. 
Dear Sir, — If your correspondent "Inquirer" 
is a man who wishes to try the Florida V'elvet 
Bean, let him have the enclosed seeds of it which 
I brought with me from Melbourne. B. 
[Our correspondent, we feel sure, will do lull 
justice to the seeds which we .send oa to hun. 
—Ed. T.A.] 
"FIRE EXTINGUISHER": A CORRECTION 
WANTED. 
Dear Sir,— In the T.A. for May is given a 
'recipe' (taken from the "Diocesan Gazette") 
