398 THE TROPICAL 
VO! . i C'Ll J i J . !<■. 
We have been using bat guana with tolerable 
success, we liave the liberty of a large cave, in 
habited by thousands of those creatures, and we 
pay mo per ton for collection. Of cattle manure 
we have made about 100 cubic yards in twelve 
months so that any profitable product, we can 
otherwise succeed in growin<.' '"an be kept up to the 
mark by means we already aumraand, more anon, 
' 24th Oct. — It was a pa^ t (;!' our original plan to 
have a large garden of vegetables, chiefly chillies, 
as the most profitable pro luct, but hitherto our 
failure has been completed, v.e sowed the seed at 
stake, with and without mmure in beds, in the 
6pei!i, and under cover of :i roof, and under leaf 
shade, la the wet season f.jw of the seeds germi- 
nated, and those few were promptly cut below the 
seed leaves by crickets. It is clear, tliat however 
favourable other conditions may be, chillies and 
crickets cannot comfortably co exist. 
BRIXJALS 
weie fairly successful when planted at the same 
time, and on the same ground with plantains. On 
a second trial, 500 plants were as good as thrown 
away, as nothing else can succeed where plantains 
have got possession of the soil, I had on this 
occasion forgot an old maxim, that I fully ac- 
cepted, and worked on many years ago, namely, 
** Never attempt to get two different crops off the 
same land, at the same time." 
BANDAKAY, 
No insect enemies have attacked this plant here, 
though it failed when tried without manure, with 
SiOlb. of cattle shed manure to each plant, and 
plenty of room, it grows to a great size and gives 
a fruit over every leaf, and they are little affected 
by the weather. 
BEANS. 
We have tried in great variety, but the most of 
them yield nothing during our protracted wet season 
but masses of leaf, and nearly all of them are 
attacked by swarms of small red ants, that as 
soon as the flower falls, suck the sap out of the 
tender young pod, and destroy them. We have 
only one kind that is fairly good in all weathers, 
a ground bean whose chief enemy is snails. We 
have other kinds that are more ornamental than 
useful, that neither animal nor insect touches, 
GOURDS, PUMPKINS, &C. 
The protracted wet season is unfavourable to 
all this family of plants, which grow to leaf 
and not to fruit. The common yellow pumpkin 
has been an utter failure ; the snake gourd is a 
breeding place for two species of nocturnal 
.moths, the grubs of which eat the tendrils and 
young leaves, but the worst enemy is an insect 
that makes the fruit itself its breeding ground. 
1 have not spotted the parent, but the grubs are 
*mall white worms, twenty or thirty of which 
eat the heart out of the immature fruit in a 
'very short tine, and latterly not one fruit 
-escaped, so that culture has been given up. 
•T!'he bottle-gourd is not attacked by any insect, 
but it rota and falls by exces.s of moisture. 
We have had no success with cucumbers and 
melons, but kekiry does pretty well. It has, 
however, a special irisect pest, in the form of 
a small red beetle which promptly appears, where 
ever it is sown. W. B. L. 
AGRICULTURIST. [Dec. I, 1903. 
THE PANAGULA RUBBER CO. LTD., 
Another Ceylon Rubber Couiijaiiy h-ts heea 
formed under the above title, and its memoratidn ni 
and articles of a?soeiation appear in la^t night's 
Gazette. The object of the Company is to pur- 
chase a block or blocks of land in the Kelaai 
Valley from the Govern.nent find to plant the 
same with rubber. The nominal capital of the 
Company is R50O,0O0 divided into R5,000 
shares of RlOO each— the original issue of :'hare8 
being R125,000, The first subscribers are Messrs 
David Kerr, A M Forbes, A D Forbes, Robt. W 
Kerr, C E Welldou, A W Gordon Gr<.ham and 
S P Blackmoi-e who take one share each ; while 
the first Directors shall be Mes.-jrs C E Welldon, 
D Kerr, and Gordon Graham. Tiie .registered office 
of the Company is to be established at Hatton. 
A NEW HYDRO EXTRACTOR, 
BY MR. DRUMMONU UEANE. 
Mr. H Drummoud Deane's Hydro-Extractor, 
which will shortly be advertised in our columns, 
is of pea- top type and built to stand the strain of 
1,200 revolutions per minute, which speed is neces- 
sary when in use for taking water of green leaf 
for black tea manufacture. For this purpose 
several machines have been sold ; and among re- 
cent testimonials, Mr H J Mounsey of Kosekandy 
estates, Cachar, has just written that ' it's s 
perfect success ' for ' green teas ' of Japan type. 
It is claimed to be the most perfect machine on 
the market and it is in use in most of the large 
Indian concerns now making green tea. 
OF MK. DRUMMOND DEANES 'STERILISER' 
he can, at the moment, only say that it is designed 
for making pure green teas of Chinese type with- 
out steam and that the patent applications 
were for ' straining leaf under pressure.' Three 
Ceylon men have lately applied for patents on 
the same lines, but Mr Deane was before them ; 
his specifications are filed in both India and 
Ceylon. This machine will be found most useful 
in drought when the 'liquor' gets brown owing 
to hardness of leaf if made as ' Japans' by steam. 
This reduces the value, but there is no objection 
to darker liquor for Chinese greens. Of all this 
we shall hear more details shortly, ft is cla'.med 
that the Finishing ami Panning machine patented 
in India is the best on the market, and as Mr 
Judge, his partner, has dropped 'the pen' of -a 
journalise for the post of Manager of the Calcutta 
Central Green Tea Factory, they have every 
opportunity of testing their work. Nearly 
half the whole Indian green tea of 
this season after purchase in Calcutta 
has gone to the Central Factory to be finished. 
Of the Hydro, the large Friction Clutch Pulley for 
stopping the machine and the interchangeable 
basket receivers are some of its best features. Mr 
Deane i.s just putting up one himself, chitfly for 
'black tea' in wet weather ; but he will make 
some green teas shortly with his London Agenfa 
permission. 
Tea Planting in Java.— We draw atten- 
tion to the interesting information contained 
in an interview elsewhere with two gentlemeq, 
planters in Java, who are at present on a visit 
to Ceylon, It is evidence of the enterprise of 
the Java planters that they should sead 
one of their number over to study Ceyloii 
plantatioue and the methods of cultivaftiotf 
and manufacture hi practice in this island. ' ■ ' 
