454 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 2, 1899. 
a» is commonly asserted, from a notch cut in 
the stem of tlie tree, tlien the practice of n<.t(.hinf; 
the tree is probaljly not necessary, becnuse I he 
lower leaves must in any case be cut away in 
order to f?et at ihe flower, and chis pruning 
wouUl alone prevent the too speedy development 
of the inflorescence. Fruit trees other than 
palms are pruned for tiie purpose of making 
them hear more than they naturally wouhl, bub 
' pruning a palm tree has the opposite efftct. 
Some years ano, before I knew the cause of the 
oily palm frequently failing to bear fruit in this 
country, I read in a local paper— the Observer 
I thinic— an extract on palm oil in which it 
was asserted that the only cultivation which 
the oily palm receives in West Africa consists 
in cutting off its leaves to increase its bearing ; 
and having a few oily palms, I tjcreupon tried 
the' effect of pruning upon some of them, but 
found that instead of its causins; them to bear 
more fruit than before, they did not flower at 
all lor a long time afterwards. .Someone liad 
probably seen oily palms from which the Negroes 
had been cutting away the leaves in order to 
facilitate the gathering of the fruit from them, 
and had errone ously interred that the pruning 
had been done for the purpose of making them 
bear more abundantly ihan they would in their 
natural condition. It would be a practical ad- 
vanta^e to the cuUivation or sugar date ptims 
in India if the notching of the trea could be 
dispensed with, because the practice, besides 
iniuring and disliguring the tree, sometimes 
proves fatal to it by reason of the notch ailord- 
in" a lodgement for the eggs of the palm 
we°evil. Weevil grubs cannot get into a iialm 
tree unless the tree has been wounded, because 
the parent weevil is not provided f)y nature 
with any instrument for making a receptacle for 
her ecfs. Sometimes porcupines bite a small 
piece "of the skin from the stem of a young 
coconut palm and then leave the tree, find.ng 
that it is too hard for them ; and it this is 
noticed in time, and tar is applied immediately 
to the wound, no harm results to the tree ; 
but unless the wound be immediately tarred, 
it commonly affords a lodgement for the 
eags of the palm weevil, and then the destruction 
of the tree is a certainty ; and if the practice 
of notching the date palms could be given up, 
their destruction by weevil grubs would probably 
seldom or never happen, because the mother 
weevil would usually be unable to hnd in them 
any suitable place for the reception of her egg--. 
As the making of date sugar is an important 
industry in India, this is a matter deserving of 
investigation ; bub both here and in India the 
Government seems to have been hitherto more 
intent upon getting ex-cise duties from intoxi- 
cating drink obtainable from sugar palms than 
upon encouraging the utilisation of the trees 
aa producers of sugar. 
The arenga does not bear productive seed 
in this coanlry, though it flowers freely ; but 
it is not singular in this respect. 'Ihe sugar- 
cane also flowers freely in this country but 
produces no seed, although Mr. Uaniel Morris 
m-opac'ated it from seed in Jamaica when he 
wa« f)' rector of the Bitanical Gardens there. 
Tlie Vmodcan -aloes also flower in tins country, 
bit bear no seed. I have had the same ex- 
perience with Manila hemp ( Musa textilis) and 
when the original home of plants of this habit 
can be known, I think it will generally be tound 
that they are indigenous to volcanic regions. 
If the failure of the arenga tree to bear pro- 
ductive seed in this country is due to the soil 
tit Ceylon being delii;ient in some necessary 
volcanic elemen'., it might be practicable to 
supply tlie deliciimcy artillL-ially by luiiuuring; 
but of courne there would be uo ailvantage in 
producing more seed than would be rt-quired 
for propagation, as arenga seed is of uo use for 
anything else; aii<l one arenga tree would bear 
seed enough to plant a foreist of it. 
•Some say t'.iat the manufacture of palm sugar 
would not pay ; but it used to be said not very 
long ago that sugar could nou be profitably 
made tiom anything e.\cept the cane, an<l llie 
manufacture of sugar from beetroot lias become 
a great European industry since then. The 
manufacture of beet sugar began in Germany 
with a j'ield of only five per cent of sugar, but 
a J'ield of twelve or fourteen per cent ia 
now obt .iried; and it is not impossible that a 
similar improvement might be eflected in the 
productitm of pahn sugar if thft sabjcct were 
bcieniilicially investigated. Moreover, it is only 
within the memory of living men thai Europeans 
have taken up the production of tea, but io 
that short space of time they have introduced 
m ire improvements into the process than the 
Chinese could think of in the two ihousand 
years during which they had pieviously been at 
the business ; anil, for aught anybody at pie- 
sent knows to the contrary, it i.'^ |)or-i«ible that 
the process of palm sugar making may be ca- 
llable of being improved in a similar manner. 
The investigation of these and other similar 
matters would be part of the proper business of 
an Agricultural Department, and although the 
i)roposal that it should be established, ori- 
ginated ill the Legislative Council with the 
Honourable Mr. Campbell, yet it is not 
at all to be supposed tiiat the Oepartment 
must necessarily e.\ist for the benefit of the 
European planters onh. The establishment of 
an Agricultural Department would not interfere 
with the proper functions of the I5otani'-al De- 
partment already in existence, but on the con- 
trary, the one department would rather be the 
complement of the other. The Botanical Depait- 
menb can and does introduce and acclimatise 
useful exotic plants, but it cannot be reasonably 
expected of it that it should undertake or under- 
stand the caring of all sons of products, or 
that it should even be able in every case to 
afford information regarding the best met hods 
of their cultivation ; and hence the need for an 
Agricultural Department as well as a Botanical 
one.— Yours &c, ALEX, T. GEDDES. 
FISH CULTURE IN CEVLON. 
Mr. C- J. R. LeMesuiier writes: — I notice in 
the veiy interesting report of the Oej-lon Fishing 
Club that • it is pioposed to iuti-odace the " Uourami " 
iuto Ceylon. I may mention that I put three of 
these fish togetner, with some lablo, both kinds 
from Madras, into the Kandy lake, so.-ne years ago, 
and that they should have bred asd mnltiphed 
thc-re by now. I al30 put some into the poimd in 
Lady Hortou's Walk above the Pavilion where, if 
the otters have not eaten them, they and their 
cle?o3ndant3 should be now. There is, however, 
no need to introduce the Goiirarai iuto Peylon, for 
it, or at any rate a fish almost exxctly like it, 
exists in great abundance in the lakes, and bock 
Welters and rivers in the Batticaloa district. It is 
there called the " Chettil '' and it is delicious 
eating. I used to propagate this fish when I waa 
District Judge at th^t station. I enclose copy of 
a letter I wrote to the Local Board when I lefj 
