504 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. 2, 1899. 
Colony should be oHicially renewed at an early 
date. Now tliat we are be^iiniiiiit; to liear a tiood 
deal more of the troubles allectint? tea— fiin<,'oid 
as well as insectivorous — ami coi s'dering the 
vast importance of the enterpri.se, it is a matter 
of pressing moment in our opinion that Mr. 
Carrutbers, equally with Mr. Green— the one as 
Mycologist and the other as Fun cjologi.st— should be 
made fully available for the Planting Entei pri.se. 
We feel convinced that before Sir West Itidt^eway 
goes home on leave, be will be able to convince him- 
self, that apart frcmi the Stall' of the Pera- 
deniya Botanic Gardens and the important in- 
vesti'^iations there carried on, there will be a 
pressiiif? need for the constant presence of the two 
Scientists named, in the Plant iiiyili.strict.s. If, as ^ye 
believe, Mr. Green takes nj) bis official duties in 
September next, we would fain hope that Mr. C:irru- 
thers may have an official call to come back to Cey- 
lon not later than that date. ^Meantime we s ly 
farewell, with, all £,'ood wishes for future prosperity, 
whether here or elsewhere, to Mr. Carruthers. 
PLANTING KOTES. 
COFFEK AS AN AUXILIARY TO TiOA. — From in- 
formation to hand— siiys the Indian I'lniitert'' 
Gazette— it would appear that a few ^'ardens in 
Sylhet and Upper Assam are seriously contem- 
plating puttin<< out from 50 to 100 acres of colFee. 
Failures there will be, no doubt, but careful 
selection of laud, good seed, good pits, caretiil 
planting and intelligent cultivation afterward.?, 
ought in a great measure to reduce the failuies 
to a minimum. 
A Dl.SH OF Tea..— The literature on tea, and 
tea drinking increases rapidly and the Lady ol 
Oct. 13 ad<ls to the mass of reading, already 
noticed and quoted by us an interesting article 
dealing with Dr. Goodfellow's lecture at the Agri- 
cultural Hall Islington. Those who have at- 
tended the annual Grocery and Provision Trade 
Exhibitions held in this ball know the interest 
that is taken in them not merely by the pub- 
lic but the retail traders in the large towns of 
the United King<ion\. With them Ur. Goodfel- 
low i-3 always pdpular : a genial lecturei-, full 
of wit and wi.sdom as well as chemical know- 
ledge, his lectures (from which we quote else- 
where) are well received. The Lady reproiluces 
much of what he says and ends with an audacious 
parody ofthe Dukeof Uutland'smemorabledislich — 
" Let wit and wisdom, laws and comraevce flee, 
But give ns still our soothing cup" of tea. 
On the ' Stiungybark" Trees of New South 
Wales, especially in regard to their Essen .ial Oils. 
By K. T. Baker, f l.S., Curator, and H. G. Smith, 
F.'c.S., Technological Museum, Sydney. Part I. 
Eead before the Koyal Society of New South 
Wales, July 6tli, 1898. A copy of tli^s pamphlet 
has reached us and we copy a summary of the re- 
sults arrived at : — 
1. Baron yon Miieller'a classificatiou of the 
" Stringybarks " is endorsed. 2. That an oil having 
a less specitio gravity than 0'910 has been found to 
exist containine; over fifty per cent of eucalyptol, 
and answering all the tests laid down in the British 
Pharmaooposa of 1898, except that of specific gra- 
vity. It is thns seen that the specific gravity test for 
Eucaly^j.as oil as given in the B.P , if enforced, might 
be t'le mean? of excluding some excellent oils. 3. 
That phosphoric acid is not a satisfactory qualitative 
test for eucalyptol in some cruie Bucalvptus oils. 
4. That eudesmol, the stearoptene of Eucalyptus 
oil, exists in large quantities in the oil of E. macro- 
rhynck(f. and can be readily purified, 
The Oi.ive growkks oI California will probably 
gatliet this winter the largest crop ever kuowii 
in the Union, says tlie Itttail Grorerx" Adroctde, 
and for the first time the produciioa of ibis fruit 
is expected to be in excess of the demands for 
consumption in California alone. An enormou* 
jdanting of olive-groves lias been made in California 
in the last lew years, estimates putting the area 
of bearing-olive groves at about 6,00(J acres, while 
the total orchard area is about 24, (.00 acres. 
Fnuiarubber — The market is firmer, and fine 
Para ^jl. dearer. Sales up to 3«. 9J(i. for spot and 
forward delivery, closing with rather buyers at 
thi.s. Scrappy iiegroheads fui ther sales at 'As. 'id. 
for near at hand, and 'is. 4d. now ai>ked. Camitas 
sold down to 'let. 5^d. for forward deli\ery. but 
nave since advanced up to 2». "i^d. At luciioa 
there \v.as , rather more demand, but pricei* .show 
little change. Clean, hard rubber bcUs well, and 
is Ncarce, soft and mixed, cheap and ]dentiful. 
— British 'Trade Juurmtl. 
VViA, E.Mri.OVME.\T FOR ESTATK COOLIES.— 
Mr. Gosset of Pnssellawa has spoken out on a 
matter that clo.sely allects the future prosperity of 
tea as well as of tiie estate cooly. Writing tn 
our contemporary, he niiule the following uu- 
mistakeable reference : — 
What is at the bottom of this combine is tlic very 
Berious indebtedness of estate kan((anics and coolies 
to cbetties and caddie people, caused in a great mea- 
sure by the miserable balances of pay that so many 
coolies now get, consequent on the scandalous amouut 
of short work that is now almost universal tbrouKbout 
the country. Some people may say that short 
wurk is due to the over-supply of coolies at the pie- 
Bont moment, but short woik has been the rule on 
raauy estates for years past, and is likely to coiitiuue 
until some more reasoaable system of pruning thao 
that now in vogue is adopted. 
And questioned a* to" piuning" he replies : — 
The system of pruning most generally adopted ia 
to I rune large acreages in January- March sndJuly- 
Septembei, and ou sora* Cbtates in Jauuary-Februaiy- 
and Julj-AiigUdt. Under this system it is always a 
case of a feast or a famine of leaf. lu the fHinine 
mouths caused By such a system, coolies are worked 
from five down to two days a week. What I would 
call a reasotable system of pruning is to prune all tl e 
year rouud wherever possible ; of course there are 
many estates that suffer from wind drought or excess 
of raiU; during some months of the year, wiieu it 
would not be possible to prune every month of Ibe 
year, but ' n moat estates it is possible ; and am con- 
vinced that it is the only system by which coolies can 
get practically full work all the year round. The big 
rushes of crop now experienced would be almost 
entirely avoided, and there would always be a consi- 
derable acreage ready to respond to any kind of 
vtealher. Coolies would thus get the full work that 
they are entitled to by law and common honesty. 
With full work, all questions connected with labour 
would improve: such as coast advances ; indebted- 
ness of kanganies and coolies to cbetties and kaddie 
people ; aud, indirectly, managers of estate and coo- 
lies would be iu a better positiou to withstand the 
ever-present combination of cbetties upccuntrv, and 
elsewhere, against them. The short work that has 
been prevalent on so many estates (especially during 
the last three mouths), is a scandal and a disgrace to 
the planting community, aud will most certaiuly leact 
upon it whenever better times set in Southern India. 
The Plauters' Association of Ceylon and a'l District 
Associations are very keen about the Labour League 
and kanganies' pay. Would it not be as well if some 
of this energy were diverted to the root question of 
the full employment of the unfortunate cooly ? If this 
were solved, the questions of coast advaoces, kanga- 
nies' pay, and the chetty combine could then be under- 
taken With some reasonable ehancea of success. 
