666 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. 1, 1899. 
ai G anxious not only to hasten the drying, but to pro- 
duce cccoa tliat is evenly dried and of excelleut ap- 
pearance. 
Tlie main featuren of the Blackman eyatern are 
that au abundance of waimed air is brought into 
contact with each separate bean, that the tempera- 
ture of the air is under control, and further, that no 
matter what thn weather may be, the cocoa is tho- 
roughly dried in a very few hours, day or night. 
Those who have experiencfcd the diaappointment 
of seeing their cocoa almost dry in the evening after 
a fine day, and fooud on the following morning that it 
ha? gone back conBidcrably during the night, will 
appreciate the ijiproved condition under which they 
may be quite independent of cold or rain, and instead 
to have at their comraand a warm dry wind in abnn- 
danco at a trifling expense, and so directed that every 
bean will receive equal treatment. 
Those also who already have drying ovens invfhich 
the cocoa is baked or stewed in stagnant heat will do 
v/sll to communicate with the Ulackraan Company, as 
we understand that with very little outlay these o»cnii 
can be greatly improved by a moditication of the 
system. We have recently seen letters written by a 
well-known planter in the West Indie«, who writes : — 
'■ The fans which I imported from yoa some time 
ago have proved a thorough success ; the cocoa dryers 
to which they are attached are the only ones iu the 
island which work satisfactorily. 
" That they turn out a good article the prices 
realized for the cocoa sufficiently attest." 
And we are informed that during the last few 
months five other planters who have seen the arrange* 
ment have placed orders with the Blackman Company 
for similar additious to their drying houses. — II and C 
Mail, Dec. 30. 
GOLD IN PERMANENT MINES, 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 
fAYABLK ORE AT GOO rHET DEPTH. 
When w« visited Ballaarat in 1SG9, the .36 
feet mine we went doirn was considered a very 
(!ccp one but it will he seen from the following 
that 600 feet \s not tliouglit wonderful now. Tha 
aiticle from ihe Coolgardit Pioneer, Dec. 24th, 
gives a fair .nummary of the history of the 
Western Australian, gold niiningiudustry, which is 
of special interest to Ceylon readers at this time: — 
Payable ore struck at a depth of 600 feet in the 
G roat Boulder mine is, apparently, a simple announce- 
ment to make, but its full significance and the almost 
illimitable prospects it opens up for the gold-mining 
industry of Western Australia will be fully appreciated 
by those who understand what t-Old proved at depth 
means to this considerable portion of Austi-aiia. It 
places beyond all question the fact that West Aus- 
tralia is destined to become the foremost gold pro- 
ducer of the world, and affords another wonderful 
illustration of the impartiality of nature in the bestowal 
of her choicest gifts on those who have the energy 
and enterprise to dare her most forbidding aspect in 
the search for what humanity holds dear. Without 
a single physical attribute to attract the attention of 
man, the eastern portion of the colony was some six 
years ago entered upon by the gold-seekers as a 
possible treasure house in which the royal metal was 
confined. The pioneers had little bat hope to guide 
them until this district was reached ; then the indi- 
cations of gold became more promising, and although 
water was practically unobtainable, animal life wai 
undiscernable, and the general surroundings were 
desert-like, trials were made. Hardships were over- 
cotue, toils were endured, and eventually pluck and 
determination proved successful, and the phenomenal 
finds at Bayley'B were announced to the world. The 
immediate eflect was an influx cf population that 
quickly altered the features of the landscape. A 
solitary wildorneis was converted into a hnuitinhiye 
pf busy workers, all engaged iu the struggle for 
Nature's golden Ftoie that losoij.' i 
by other uuineious rich d.sco^ ■ r 
Dien vreut the better became li. i - , ' <- ■ 
field. West Australia at once aruse fruiu ihe pOftUioit 
of the Uast considered of the AustraiiiiD coIoqIm to 
k land with certain pobsibihlit f, and for a liitie all 
looked blight and chvt'i'al. Ilie rich sarfnce fiude 
tl llauuautt, following ou ihobe of CooUerdie, i> duced 
the belief that the new Elaoradu, the Tom Tiddlei '■ 
ground " of the scLoolbcy, bad at IvnvMi bccu die- 
covered. The talc* of luarTelluus fjnds travailed, 
capital nas attractrd to the cch'iiy, claims were pegged 
cut, and couapaiiiti were formed to work prcpciliei 
all over the district. Men who knew as mucbabual 
mining as a blue-bottle lly doce of the fourth di- 
nieuiion blossomed forth as experts on the toil or 
were sent oat from Kngland to take charge of pro- 
perties, with the inevitable revall. The phenoiueual 
surface deputits were abbli acted from their bens ; no 
others were discovered to fill their place* and main- 
tain the golden Rlamor. Nature demanded her tribute. 
Hard and intelligent work, with tome skill lu ui;niiig, 
wa* required, and a* the then exiiitent expert and 
mining engineer was entirely without these qualiliee, 
the worst of report* about the eastern goldfinld* were 
sent abroad. Firsl-cla<js properties taken up iu cou- 
mon with other* that were as innocent of goid as 
the ordinary blue stone quarry, were abandoned, and 
men who had devoted their principal energies to the 
eonsnmptiou of champagne and the affectation of the 
digger's stvie, having spent the money entrusted to 
them by their directors, notified their companies that 
the eastern goldfields consisted principally of surface 
ehows. Fortunately, some of the good properties got 
into the hands of capable manager*, and the output 
of gold gradaally increased until even the expectatiuns 
of the most optimistic were almost realised. Unfor- 
tunately there still clang to the goldfields the repa- 
tation of having received thousand* of pounds of 
public money for which there had been no return*, 
and even the marvellous yields from moderate depth* 
on the famous Boulder belt, together with the ever 
increasing monthly output all over the colony, failed 
to reassnie the investing public that West Australia 
was destined to be the great gold producer of the 
world. The people who had put their money into 
most of the concerns did not know that it had 
been frivolled away, but merely that it was gone* 
They were quite prepared to admit that the eastern 
goldfields had, their age considered, yielded marve- 
lonsly, but with the cautiousness characteristic of the 
average speculator, they preferred to await 'develop- 
ments before putting any more of their good sovereign* 
into what, after all, might prove a chimerical pursuit 
of the metal in the rough. Prove your mines at k 
depth has been the favorite crj of the capitalitit. both 
in Auslnilia and abroad, w.^en offered a property 
which afforded fair ecope for investment. The 
enterprise of the Great Boulder management 
has doae this. It has shown that the lodes 
in that marvellous district carry gold at depths 
that would «eem to demonstrate that the rich mines 
of the Rand are not to be corcpared with those wa 
have in our midst at similar distances below the sur- 
face, and those who have pinned their faith to ths 
permanency of the rich reefs iu Hannan's Boulder, 
Coolgardie, and other districts will have the proud 
satisfaction of realising that their optimism is likely 
to be rewarded, and speedily too. The immediate 
effect of the Boulder strike is not likely, in the present 
disturbed state of international politics in Europe, to 
result in an inrush of foreign capital, but it will 
hearten those who hav* money invested in the 
colony's goldfields, and induce them to take little 
hoed cf the reports of individuals whose ignorance 
and mismanagement presented them carrying, 
on mining development in a proper manner 
To this, more than to anything else, is to 
be attributed tha slump which has passed 
through the fiaids, but as what the Boulder has 
done others can do, a period of renewed activity can 
be looked for all over the proved fislds. There aro 
Bcores and scores of mines off the Boulder main reefs 
that 9nl7 want working to return payable results, 
