March 1, 1899.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
611 
and Augast of this year, and although he had not 
of&cially anything to do with the making of the finan- 
cial " accordo," still at the various dinnars and pub- 
lic entertainments in his favour in Loudon and Paris 
he gave hia promise that he would in all his govern- 
ment acts, have steadily in view the faithful fulfilment 
of the contract. 
The President who has just left office — President 
de Moraes e Barros— was a Pmdisfa, as the natives 
of Sao Paulo are calle The present one. Manoel 
Ferras de Cempos Salles, is also from the same State, 
both are of the legal profession, but are extemivo 
coffee planters as well. 
I intended to have mentioned some facts with re- 
gard to narrow-gauge railways, of which there are 
in successful working many kilometres in Brazil, but 
I must leave that for another opportunity. 
1 am glad to see that the colonial governing powers 
are waking up to the need of farther railway com- 
munication in Ceylon. 1 think if you had begun with a 
narrower-gauge than the five feet six, extensions would 
have gone on more rapidly. 
A. SCOTT BLACKLAW. 
WYNAAD PLANTERS' ASSOCIATION. 
The Annual General Meeting was held at Mep- 
padi, on January 4tli last, at which the Annual 
Keporb for 1898 was presented. The followiiijj' para- 
graph is of interest : — 
Cultivation — Coffee crops are very good through- 
out the district, and wo trust we are now enter- 
ing on a cycle of prosperous years. The competition 
of S. American countries with a low exchange threatens 
ns, however, with lower prices for a time. Experi- 
ments with Arabica-Liberian Hybrids are Ipeiug car- 
ried out on a considerable scale, and promise very 
valuable results. The cultivation is extending, and 
prices and yields are encouraging. The only cloud 
on the horizon of this cultivation is the unreliable 
nature of the labour, of which tea requires a steady 
supply throughout the year. It is to be hoped that 
this may be overcome in time, but your Committee 
beg to draw your attention to the importance of 
making persevering efforts to solve this problem. 
Pepper is becoming a cultivation of importance, and 
is being extended : present prices and crops being 
very remunerative. Liberian coffee cultivation remains 
much as it was : it is doing well in parts, but is dis- 
appointing in others. On the whole, your Committee 
consider that the prosperity of the district has improved 
very much during the past year. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Tea Shipments and Estimate.s.— We are in- 
debted to the Secretary of the Chamber of Com- 
merce for the following ligures : — 
Januai'y shipments . . 6,750,000 lb. 
February estimate :— 7^ to 8,000,000 ,, 
Native Tea Gardens— says a well-informed 
Nawalapitiya coue.spondent — have not given up 
plucking, but since t!ie fall in prices they are 
not receiving the care and attention hii;iierto 
bestowed on them. 
" H.VNDBOOK OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY 
FOR Indian Students."— By S. H. Collins, f.i.e,, 
etc., Assistant A<'ricultural Chemist to the 
Government of India, Calcutta, Office of the Sii|ier- 
intendent to Government Printing, India, 1889. 
We quote the preface : — 
There are many excellent books on agricultural 
chemistry based on Kaglish exparienee, and this 
volume aims merely at supplying their deficiencies in 
Bubjoots peculiar to India. A certain amount of 
European experience has been interpolated, smce 
without it the book would not have been intelligible to 
tlio student. The analyses arc, unless otherwise 
stated, exclusively Indian ; and are in mobt cases, 
based on the average results of the treatment of 
several samples— S. U. C. 
Ceylon Tea Companies, Limited.— This mail 
brings the intelligence from London that in the 
case of Sterling Ceylon Tea Companies, the Agents 
have seen their way to make a substantial re- 
duction in their commission and charges, in view 
of the hard times. We trust this liberal ex- 
ample will be followed by the Agents and 
Secretaries of Rupee Companies in Colombo, es- 
pecially ot such Companies as are only paying a 
very modest dividend. 
CoFFEi^ Pests.— Much uneasiness is felt in 
Selangor at the appearance of vast numbers of 
caterpillars on the Petaiing Estate, where they 
ate the leaves of the coffee trees over fifty acres. 
Mr. Ridley says they are the caterpillars of the 
bee hawk moth. Chasseriau estate was badly in- 
fested some years age and the only remedy found 
was handpicking. He says : " I never heard of 
the caterpillar doing any permanent injury ex- 
cept to very young trees, but it by no means im- 
proves the trees and should be destroyed."— /S'tflf/w- 
pore Free Press. 
Tea and Cinchona on the Nilgris.— Mr. T, 
C. Anderson, who returned recently from a visit 
to his property in the Nilgris, reports tea tiiere 
to be in a very flourishing condition, and is 
confident that oy and by it will come to have 
as good a name as that of Darjeeling. Cinch ana 
cultivation is also being gone in for extensively. 
Some interesting remarks on quinine are made 
by Cosmopolite in "Odds and Ends," which we 
publish in another column. He strongly advises 
planters, especially those in Uva to plant up their 
road lines and corners with the best cinchona 
plants they can get. 
A New Patent Tea-Dryer.— Mr. James Betts, 
a former well known tea-planter up-country, who 
arrived recently from Edinburgli, and is at pre- 
sent residing at tlie Adam's Peak Hotel, Hatton, 
has, says our evening contemporary, brought with 
him the fitting machinery, &c., for the erection 
of a new patent tea-dryer, constructed on his own 
designs by Messrs. Cruikshank & Co., Edinburgh. 
The machinery, which has been sent up to Hat- 
ton, will be erected at Messrs. Brown & Co.'s 
foundry, and experiments carried on as to its 
Huitabiiity, or otherwise, for the purpose for 
whicli it was made and designed. Arrange- 
ments for its erection have already been made, 
and Messrs. Brown & Co. are busy attending to 
the work under the personal supervision of Mr. 
Betts. The machinery is reported to be unlike 
that of any other of the dryers used in Ceylon. 
Agricultural Pursuits for Women is 
beginning to be a subject of public interest in 
New South Wales. Mrs. Armitage (formerly of 
Colombo) has been wilting on the subject and 
as a prominent member of the New South Wales 
National Council of Women, she and other 
leaders have started a proposal for an Agricul- 
tural College for women in Sydrey, We have 
received from Mrs. Ingles a copy of an interest- 
little parii|)hlet entitled : — 
Agriculture and Domestic Economy for ^\■onIen. 
Notes and suggestions by JIrs, D. E. Armitage, Hon. 
Secretary, National Council of Women of N.S.W. 
A paper read ut the half-yearly meeting, Xovember 
18th, 1898, and printed by order of Council. 
Among branches suggested by women's work 
are : — buttei -making ; bacon ; i)0Hltry and duck- 
rearing ; fruit-growing, jam-nuiking and bee- 
keeping ; vegetable-growing ; ramie-fibre : luicl the 
growing of llowers for scent-making and of lu-rb-s 
for ilrugs — all very interesting and useful unil 
niost of them feasible, wo .-should say. 
