Aug. 1, 1903.1 THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
OUE OLDEST TEA STILL FULL OP 
VIGOUE : 
AEE PESTS NOT EATHEE TOO PEEELY 
DISCUSSED IN PUBLIC? 
Our question is one that iias begun to 
attract the notice of a good many people 
who say that if the Ceyion papers get so 
full of " shot-bole borer, ' tortrix, cater- 
pillars and blights, home capitalists and 
absentee shareholders will give up their 
faith in the tea enterprise altogether, and 
the effect will soon be felt in the quotations for 
shares! There is certainly some reason to take 
this view of the case into consideration. 
'• Vigilance Committees " by all means ; but 
a little less of publicity about what after all 
may tm^n out to be a case of " much ado 
about nothing," would be only prudent, if the 
impression is not to carried abroad that 
Ceylon tea is in for all the insect and 
fungoid pests recorded by Sir George 
Watt and Mr. Harold Mane. 
A good annual test, we always think, of 
the condition and prospects of our Tea 
Enterprise, is afforded by the crop report of 
the Superintendent of Mariawatte Estate 
of the Ueylon Tea Plantation Company, since 
it is about the most richly cultivated and 
heaviest-bearing garden in Ceylon. Where 
should pests take effect if not on bushes 
which have gone on for wellnigh 20 years 
bearing 12 to 16 maunds of tea per acre ? 
But Mariawatte may be regarded as alto- 
gether exceptional — although old Assam 
Planters told us 15 years ago, after a visit, 
that they did not consider it would iast 
much longer 1 - and we may be asked what 
about average tea in the old coffee districts ? 
Well, we have just received from the Man- 
ager of Loolecondera, Me. G. F. Deane, the re- 
port on his oldest tea which he is good enough 
to send us, perodicahy, when we are making up 
our Handbook's " agricultural review.". Let 
it be remembered that we are now dealing 
with tea 35 years old, about the oldest fiela 
regularly cultivated to be found in Ceylon and 
here is the Manager's report dated 3rd July : — 
"Be the oldest tea fields here, I can teil you 
that they are still looking very wed and full 
of vigour, no manuring has been done : the 22 
acras planted 1868-9 gave a yield of 423 lb. made 
tea per acre last season and the 84 acres planted 
1874-5 6 gave a yield of 434 lb. Both these 
fields suffer much from the vvfind or the yield 
would be greater." 
Surely if anything is calculated to reassure 
any alarmed capitalist or shareholder about 
the soundness of our Ceylon Tea Industry, 
it is such a report as the above on the tea 
Slanted by old James Taylor for Messrs. Keir, 
lundas & Co., 30 to 35 years ago : — still 
full of vigour and yielding good crops al- 
though without manure and exposed to wind. 
The test for 1903 at least could not be more 
satisfactorily answered. 
PEARLING OFF GERMAN EAST AFRICA. 
We learn that Dr Aurel Scliu'z, F R G S African 
explorer, has secured two concessions over the 
whole of the coast of German East Africa; one 
for mother-of-pearl and pearl fishing and the other 
for b^chQ-A^-niQi:— Zanzibar Gazette, May 13. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Gum. — Chili. — Large quantities of a kind of resin 
called in Spanish ' Goiiia brea,' are being shipped 
fiora Chili to the French ports. This vegetable 
ghie is much appreciated, as it is an excellent 
substitute for the gum Arabic so universally 
employed. The plant of the 'Goinabrea' grows 
in tl.e forests of Salta and west of Santi^pro de 
Cliili. The gum is easy of extraction, and the 
natives use it for various pari,'oses. The ex- 
portation of this article has already commenced 
on a regular scale, and is likely to sliow a large 
development, as it equals gum Arabic in quality, 
altliouj^h it is much cheaper. — Argentine Consul 
at Dunkerque. 
Fruit Trh;e Planting by the Roadsides.— 
We are continually met with the objection that 
the fruit would be stolen, or that it would be 
worthless, that no one would take care of the trees, 
and with other excuses for doing nothing. These 
objections have been traversed over and over again, 
but perhaps the better way is to continue to cite 
what is done elsewhere. From Revue Borticole, 
we learn that in 1902, there was a total of 166,342 
fruit trees, principally Apples and Pears, planted 
alou;^ the roadsides in Bavaria, the average cost 
per tree being 2 fr. 76 c. The annual produce per 
tree averaged froniji4 fr. 32 e. to 3 fr, 70. c, accord- 
ing to locality, or a rate of interest from 6 8 per 
cent to 17 per cent — Gardeners' Ghronicle, June 6. 
" World's Fair Bulletin." — This is a pam- 
phlet published in the interests of the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition, to be held in St. Louis, 1904. 
Preparations are being made on an extensive scale, 
special buildings are being erected, and no pains 
spared to ensure success. "It is believed," says 
tiiis sanguine publication, "that all the great 
societies aud institutions of learning in the world 
will be represented, and that the resulting volumes 
of papers and discussions will be an enduring monu- 
ment to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition." A 
horticultural building in connection with the affair 
is to be built in the shape of a Greek cross, with a 
centre pavilion 403 ft. square, and two large wings- 
One wing is to ije heated, to serve as a nursery 
for bedding plants and to protect tender exhibits, 
and in this growing exotics and forced vegeta- 
bles and fruits will also be housed. The second 
wing is for general horticultural exhibits, offices, 
&c., and the centre pavilion is to contain porno- 
logical exhibits. — Gardeners' Chronicle, June 6. 
Ramie — is said to have been successfully culti- 
vated in South Sumatra. Two enterprising 
planters began with the experimental growing of the 
fibre in Siak, a district in East Sumatra. The 
experiment failed, but the experience gained 
showed the way how to succeed in better soil. 
That' requirement was met in the Lampong dis- 
tricts — a neighbouring province. There the soil 
was found to be all that could be wished for. The 
ramie planted thrived in paying quantities, the 
fibre yielded being long and of excellentqualiiy. The 
results at the outset proved to be so satisfactory 
that ramie planting there has passed beyond the 
trial stage. The planters sent specimeus of the 
fibre produced to experts in Europe who pro- 
nounced the product to be fully equal to Chinese 
ramie. The machine used is that invented by 
Faure, which of late has been so much altered for 
the better that the cleaning of ramie by this 
method can, it is said, be hardly improved upon. — 
Straits Times, June 17. 
