March 1, 1899.] THE TEOPICAL 
AGPJCULTUPJST. 
609 
NEW INDIAN PATENTS. 
No. 461. — Laurence Oliphaufc Liesching, teoretary 
and accountant of the Colombo Hotels Company, 
Limitsd, Colombo, Ceylon. An improvecl contrivance 
for weather-pvoof and thief -resisting covers for live- 
stock or goods, either while being conveyed by lanS 
or water, or v/hile stored on land or water, as well 
as for all purposes that tents are at present em- 
ployed for. 
No. 464. — James Ernest Ilickmott, engineer, of 20, 
Park lane, Calcutta. Improvements iu brick and tile- 
making machines. 
No. 476, — Samuel Cleland Davidson, merchant, of 
Sirocco Engineering works, Belfast. Improvements in 
centrifugal fans and pumps. 
No, 450.— Arthur William George Silboru, fibre dres- 
ser, pulper and tow manufacturer, of Durban, Natal, 
South Africa, at pr-esent residing at Spence's hotel, 
Calcutta. Improved apparatus for extracting, cleansing 
and preparing the fibre contained in the aloe and 
other fibrous plants. — Indian and Eastern Engineer. 
«• 
PIONEERING- AND PLANTING IN COIM- 
BATOKE, S. INDIA. 
( From a Plantar. ) 
Eeb. 3. 
The weather is very briglit and fine over iiere 
and jangle is being felled on several block.'^ and 
there have been some good burns. 
A Mr. Fox, from Knuckles, came over here 
to take charge of Messrs. Finlay, Mair & Co.'s 
land, but unfortunately he has fever in his system 
and the neiv clearing work seems to have brought 
it out badly and so he had to leave. He also 
brought some Sinhalese, but they were a dis- 
contented lot, evidently expecting little work and 
lots of pay ; and so the beauty and size of our 
jungle frightened them away. Though niy 
Sinhalese people have ha<l some rough times, 
yet with a few exceptions they have done splendid 
work and are quite happy, looking forward to 
going to " Lanka " in Maroli, with a nice little 
sum to enjoy their New Year, and I have no 
doubt that several will come back here again 
later in the year. 
There are a good many iron-wood trees in the 
jungles here ami also some very fine cedar trees, 
red and white, three or four feet in diameter. 
My bazaar is all built of cedar; it is built after 
the fashion of bazaars in Ceylon and is much 
Ijatroiiized by Appuhamy and Ramasaniy. My 
liead carpenter linds nhe work to his taste here 
and has gone to fetch six more of his trade to 
assist him. 
The next estate has a field of coffee planted 
last year which is coming on splendidly. 
PLANTING IN BRAZIL. 
COFF EE — R U B B EK -TE A— C OTTOX — 
SUGAR &C. 
(r.Y AN EX-CKYLON Pr.ANTF.R.) 
(Special for Uie "Cei/Ton Observer.") 
Rio de Janeiro. 1st Dec, 1898. 
Sir, — Since I last wrote you there has been little 
news to chronicle as regards Brazilian Agriculture 
The low price of 
COPKEE 
during the last few years lias led tho planters to 
think of growing other products. 
INDIAN CORN, 
which grows well nil over Urazi! — jr at least the coffee- 
producing parts — has received a gooi deal of attention, 
for the supply of food for tramway mules and for horses 
belonging to private families, as well as for horses and 
mules for street transport, and for carriages for 
hiring, had all to be imported in tho shape of 
Indian corn from the River Phiti, and as it had 
to be paid for in gold, the price in Braziliau currency 
rose considerably owing to tha fall in exchange". 
The Government Railways and others in the hands 
of companies reduced the rates for corn, and with 
these inducements, planters neir a railway have 
taken to grow a great deal of this prodacs. Others 
who have large virgin forests near a railway are 
sendiug timher to the tov/ns, for which there is a 
good demand. A great deal of American and 
Swedish timber was formerly and is still used in 
construction in the towns. 
COTTOX 
can grow well all over Brazil, and the many local 
spinning mills— fostered by a heavy protective duty 
on imported cotton manufactures — give a fair price 
for the raw material, bat as yet the coffee planter 
has not gone in for much cotton planting. ' 
SUG.4.R-CANE 
is being grown in the abandoned coffee lands in the 
State of Rio de Janeiro, but owing to the exnensa 
in turning cane juice into sugar, and the continued 
low price of the latter article, the juice is turned into 
spirit, for which there is alwaj s a fair demand at a 
paying price. 
IXMABUBBEB 
has not escaped the attention of the coffee planter 
A great deal of writing in the newspapers during 
the last 
six months has induced the public authorities 
to encourage the production, by procuring seed 
and selling it at cost price, or even below that' 
to planters; and to small farmers who will promise 
to plant it, it is given gratis. Para BiMer will uok 
grow in the Coffee Districts so far South as Rio 
and S. P.iulo, but there are other two kinds— first • 
the Jlanrjabeira (Hancornia Speciosa). Ic g-'ves a 
delicate fruic, called in Brazil Msngaba, which ia 
l?"^.u ° 'll '^^'"-^^f% t° sick people and in the 
Northern btatc-s of Brazil where it grows wild in the 
forest has tho name of " fruit for the siili " Xha 
rubber from this tree has been exported from Bahia 
and Pernambuco for some years, but not in laro-e 
quantities. It sells at less than the Para Rubber ,jnd" 
ing by newspaper reports, this tree is bein^' planted 
on a large scale in the west of the State of Illo Paulo 
Second : 
CEAR.V RUBBEE 
(Mauihot Glaziovi) you are already well acquainted 
with. It IS being distributed in the" S;at" of Rio It 
will grow in any part in Brazil, but hitherto' has 
been exported only from Ceara in the north Its 
price has kept low owing to the careless manner of 
collecting. 
TE.V. 
I must not omit to mention thai Tea you- nrin- 
cipal staple, has also been thought of. A gentleman 
of my acquaintance. Cob Joao Antonio Alve^ de 
Bcito, who owns a large Coffee Plantation in the borders 
or Mmas and Rio Stites-after getting several 
particulars from me and reading some Troincal 
AiiricHUurists I lent him, stuck to tho idea, and he 
told me a month ago that he had ordered th.-oaf h 
his agents. Tea seed enough to plant two hundred 
acres of virgm f orestland. The seed to be the best kind 
grown in Ceylon. He at the same lime told m - be 
had ordered through Messrs. Crashley & Co., Enr'hch 
Dooksellers and News Agents in Rio de Janeiro" all 
the b^Lck numbers of ihe Troi>icul .UirimUunst 
as well as ordered current numbers to be sent 
regularly. 
I did not press hiiu or give him encourftfement 
to go lu for " 
TEA CUI.TIV.\TI0N 
indeed I told hira it would hi a lo.siug game attempf 
jng to compete with C.-ylon and India, where 
labour was plentiful at from nine-pence to a 
shilhng a day, while here in Brazil it v.-as scarce 
and cost from two shillings and six pence to three 
shillings. He replied that Ceylon and Indian Teaa 
had been selling hero, and in other parts of Brazil 
at never less than twelve niihcis a kilo for some 
