250 
THE TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST. 
[Oct. 1, 189ft. 
biassed by any profound reading for competilivft 
examinations, I have made use of KuculijpluH in 
ni:iny forms and always witli excellent results, 
Tlie oil is a speeiti'; for malarial fever and n«Vi<i. 
A decoction of the youn^ .-ucculent leaves of the 
blue j^'iiiii ni,il«'s a ^'ood fomentation for sprains 
and rlieauiHtism : foi- luiic; eouiplalnts the inhala- 
tion of steam from the lioiled leaves is very efh- 
cacioiis, and for cold in tlie head and the feverish 
headache of influenza, the yonng leaves dried uid 
powdered and used as snnll' niaUe a very simple 
and pleasant remedy. — Yonrs faithfully, 
A CEYI>OX PLANTRIt. 
GREEN TE.\S AND CARD.\ MO.VIS. 
An-.vu.st 4. 
Deau Sir, -l! >vx, wiili mueh iinerest [ read the 
letter from "]o74" (s-e p;it;e 191) re green tea. 
Tlie proposals of the wrir^ r are very jiood, some 
but oiie must heuin and why dots not " 1874 " 
take viji ,1 leavl u'kI sIkiw tlie way by seudin;^ .some 
green tea Ui An erica ? 
The price.s at present are most disheartening and 
the position of many estates is clearly shown 
in Mr. Westland's letter and it would be well to 
have a try in jjreen teas. 
Wou!d it not meet requirements if you Mr. 
E'itor gave us some articles on "Manufacture 
and paeltins^ ot ^;rpei teas " and then i*^ a few of 
i-'adi;;i' plii- ters v.iii have fie^^ l):ui would 
i.iWi. '.h> -i-nX. •• !n'i.'iit able bftter to jjel 
u ;.. vii.'eriea. 
Vio.i. i'/a:Je/s aie uu?ib!e to do ii;u"li being 
einpb.yttil l.y Companies which do not seeui to 
like experiments. 
I am asL,(,!nshed at your note in July 16th rc 
Cardamoms did not bring in letters from cirdamom 
planters. 
Consideration must be taken co the fact that 
cardair.oms will only crop for a limited number 
of years and that in the 4th and Sth year from 
planting, one gets the largest an(l fiiie.st crop. 
Thereafter both the amount realised per acre 
diminishes considerably and the fruit gets smaller 
in size. 
The market is fully 50 cents lo-.ver this year 
than last per lb. and with the very big acreages 
now being planted up there is eveiy likelihood 
that the price will go down very much more. — 
Yonrs faithfully, X. Y. Z. 
[We have called on " 1874 "—who is an Indian 
Tea Planter and perhaps not at liberty to do as 
be writes— to send us some letters on the manu- 
facture of "green teas." — We took it for granted 
that the limitations of carrlamom planting were 
understood ; and the figures referred to were 
given as maximum and very exceptional ones. 
—Ed. T a.-] 
WHITE ANTS AND THE TEA BUSH: 
THE SOLUTION OF THE MYSTERY 
Eton, Pundaluoya, Augt. 6. 
Dear Sir, — With reference to the letter, under 
above beading, in your issue of Srd inst, the 
fact of the matter is that both disputants (.'V and 
B) are right- in their sevcal statements. The 
confusion arises from the fact that many people 
are under the impression that there is only one 
kind of 'white ant' in Ceylon : whereas we 
have many different species— all with different 
habits. Tliere is the comtuon gallery-iorm- 
ing white ant (Termes Taprobanes) that at- 
tacks de.ad but apfMrtntly sound wood, 
including sawn tintber: anotlier species that lives 
only in soft decayed wood : ot'.'eis whote habits 
have not yet been studied: find linally a spbciea 
that certainly doe* feeil upon the li\ing wood of 
wli,ac are to all inlerests and pur|j(»6eH healtiiy 
plants. It is the latter species that 1 descril)eH 
and figuied in my little work on, Insect Pestu 
of the Tea Plants' p. 1)3. This insect is quite 
distinct from the common species. It niakcH its 
entrance into the plant underground, o.ien by the 
tap root, works upwards through the stem and 
bramhes, juid eventually leaves little but Uie 
shell of die plant. As the bap coiitinufs to cir- 
culate in the outer parts for ."omeiime, the plaut 
d'^es not show signs of the dau);t;.c until it in paiit 
reinedy. The only thing to be done then i.s to 
c irefully destroy thiit oiloiiy of the tv i mii-i^, \„ |jie- 
vent any fiirthei attack. The i<teiu of thu iujuictl 
stem will he full uf the insects and ot!i<Ms will be 
found in extensions of the galleries under ground. 
—The ' ([ueen ' of thin- .-species li;is not yet bfseii 
found. If any of your readers are .'tttlicted with 
tiiis [lesi, I should be greatly obliged ii ih. y would 
.send me a supply of living specienieiis (proptrhj 
]nirUed in tin) of the dillerent siagei- of the infieec. 
Dr. Watt gives a largo amount of interesting 
anil v.iluable information about dill'erent species 
of ' White Anto, ' in his recent elaborate work 
on " the Pests and liiights of the 1 ea I'lant." 
Yours truly, £. ERNEST GREEN. 
"I.MPROVED PRUNING 01' TKA "— AND 
BETTER CROP. 
Sir,— I have been very nimdi misurderstood in 
my letter imblished in the Tropical Agri- 
(■ulturist. At the end of my letter I paid, 
that with pruning as detailed by nie and 
liberal mmiitring frer\i year, the yiehl of a whole 
estate should not stop short of 'l,6u0 lb. of tea 
per acre. 
The comment on this sentence (see page 46) is 
.as follows : 1874 has startled our local community 
liy his exi)osition of an improved .system of 
[uuning and manuring, which he says, ous-lit to 
raise the yieltl of avkrage estates to 1,60(J lb. 
an acre. Please note that I saiil "the yield of 
a whole estate " and not the yield of average 
estates. I imagined that the average planting 
mind would know that I meant the maximum 
and not the average. 
This system whicli I have advocated is probably 
the oldest of all, and was reconmiended by Dr. 
Jacobson about 4o years ago. The Indian Tea 
Cyclopoedia of 1S81 will also show any one who 
troubles to read it, that the cutting down of 
bushe.s is strongly forbidden except only in the 
case of individual bushes which are evidently 
dying. 1 have not got any improved system, bui 
I have reverted in practice to what all will ac- 
knowledge as common sense in theory. And as far 
as I know I am the only Planter who has teste<l 
the theory over a series of years, and found it 
to succeed in the main object, which is to im- 
prove the bushes. I ask to be informed if any- 
one has tested the plan of not cutting down and 
found it to fail ? 
I believe any planter who reads ray letter 
to mean tliat I expected "l,6"0 1b. of tea from 
average estates'' is either deficient in common 
sense himself, or did not give the matter suffi- 
cient thiuiglit. There is nothing in the bulk of 
my letter to show that I expect the system of 
pruning to work like a patent manure— could such 
