.Tan. 1, 1004.] THK TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 4.')9 
"NEW ' IJfDUSTRIES FOR THE NATIVES. 
At a rpcent n>eetiiig of the Dimbula P A., 
Mr Kelway Barnber gave some useful advica 
on the nianui'iiig of tea, and the advantage 
of growing a green nitrogen prodncing plant 
among the tea as a nuilch, especially cro- 
talaria. He explained the method of growing 
the crotalaria, and stated that one crop 
grown and pulled np and to be used as a 
mulch was equivalent to a diessing of half a- 
ton of Ciistor oil cake ; the green crops sn:>- 
plying necessary humus. Some difficulty is 
experienced in obtaining crotalaria seed, 
although the plant is a common read-side 
weed in Ceylon. The natives for some 
reason will not go to the trouble of gathering 
the seed ; and, although offering a fair price, 
Mr. Bamber has been unable to induce them 
to take np the work. Orotalaria in many 
parts of the island grows plentifully ; in the 
neighbburhood of Colombo it grows in 
abundance about Bambalapitiya, and i^ very 
common in the Matale district and elsewhere. 
Native boys md youngsters could e.isily collect 
the ripe seed and there would always be a 
good demand for almost any quantity of it. 
We should like to see the work taken up. 
Another seed for whicli there is a strong 
demand is the Ntix Vomica, a common tree 
in many parts of Ceylon. The yellow fruit 
can be easily gathered when ripe, and all 
that is required is 'to wash the pulp off 
in any stream or pool of water and dry 
the large clean seeds, two or three of which 
are in each fruit. For nux vomica seed 
there is a good demand, and for this also 
a ready sale could be found. Any one who 
could take up the work and get natives 
in the various districts to collect the seed 
would find a brisk market for its dis- 
posal. Both these products are ready to 
hand, and it is only necessary to induce 
the natives to t.ike up the work— but they 
are naturally disinclined to take up any new 
venture and look <in it with some suspicion. 
SOLUBLE TEA : 
HOW SHOULD THE TEA-PLANTER 
REGARD IT. 
A correspondent elsewhere raises a timely 
question when he asks whether considerably 
less leaf is not required to make a certain 
quantity of tea liquid— from the soluble tea 
powder than is required to produce the 
amount of ordinary black tea that will 
yield an equal quantity of the " cup that 
cheers but not inebriates." As the Soluble 
Tea Company is going ahead, such a question 
affecting tlie Company's capacity for ab- 
sorbing green leaf is of high interest to 
the black, and even the greon tea piodueer. 
We have, therefore, sought for an answer 
to the question, It is pointed out that 
it is a very vague (piestion— as 1 lb. of one 
tvA will not give the same quantity of a 
good infusion ns another— and it will take 
' more povnids of some tea leaf to make, say, 
",11b of so'uble te:-, than of other leaf. 
I It all depends on the quality of the 
'tea. and the quality of the green leaf 
used fur foluble tea. The anxious enquirer 
may, however, console himself with the 
; 58 
general statement, that the more soluble tea 
is made, the more of ordinary leaf tea will 
be taken off the market— to the benefit of 
the planter. His conclusion is scarcely to 
the point, .as solub'e tea is not so likely to 
take the place of ordinary tea, in its ordinary 
use ; but will be mostly used by the? man 
in a hurry, who has no time to wait for the 
infusion of ordinary tea. It is more likely 
to displace essences of coffee. Had essence 
of coffee been ni.ide purely of coffee beans— 
as soluble tea is made of pure tea leaf— whit 
a. boon it might have been to coffee planters ! 
It has already been sufficiently made known 
that soluble tea is striking out into quite new 
fields ffU' itself, the world over ; while its 
growing popularity with natives opens up 
prospects of a ready sale in this way. Both 
this and its other spheres of enterprise 
.'honld present results which must inevitably 
tend to the general good of the tea industry. 
CASTILLOA OR PANAMA RUBBER. 
Castilioa is a genus of the family Moracece 
(often included in Urticacece), and belongs to that 
section ( f tlie family which includes the jack and 
bieailfruit (Artocarpus), the milk tree (Brosimum), 
and the many species of Ficus, e.g ,^ the Bo and 
the Assam rubber (F elastica). The genns has 
two or more species. Of tliese, the most important 
is C elnntica,, (Cervantes), the Ul6 of the Spaniards, 
which is found wild in Mexico from lat 2lo 
.southwards, in Guateinala, Honduras, San 
Salvador, Costa Riea, and Nicar.agaa ; it also 
apiiears to occur in N irlh-Western Souili America. 
C tunu, (Hemsl), the Tunu, occurs in Honduraa and 
Costa Rica. Castilloa rubber was introduced into 
the Colony about the .same time as the Para and 
through the same asrency. A Wardian case of 
plants ariived in 1876 from the R yal Gardens, 
Kew, and the plants were put out at Henaratgoda 
and Peradeniya. They grew well at both places, 
but especially at H^naratgoda, and were increased 
by cuttings. They began to flower in 1881, and in 
the following year a few seeds were ripened. Aboub 
1886 the growth became less rapid, and since then 
has been very slight, the ?oil in the gardens being 
shallow, and at Henaratgoda not well drained C. 
elastica is usually described as a large tree of 
rapid growth, reaching 180 feet in height and 15 
feet in girth. The Ceylon plants show no sign of 
such growth. There has been some doubt as to 
whether they are the true C elastica; (hey were 
brought by Cross from Dariea (Panania)^ 
where they were locally known as Caucho, 
and have been described by some as a differ- 
ent species, C MarJcliamiana, Markham (not 
Co!lin«). Reoent research seems to show that this 
form cannot be specifially separated from Celasiiea, 
but at the same time it is not improbable that 
ti e latter rcurs in 9e^eral different varietie?. 
Koschny describes three in Costa Rica, the while' 
black, and re<l (Ule bianco, negro, Colorado), re- 
cognised chiefly by the colour of the bark. As 
this is partly due to lichens, these colours are 
probably i ot reliable test.? out of Costa Kica, The 
white form is described as the best, the others 
giving a poor yield and being easily injured by 
tapping. A eonbiderable number of plants were 
distributed from the Gardens, and the tree is now 
coinmnu in Ceylon, especially in the Matale Dis- 
trict. In recent years some seed Las been imported 
