470 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1904. 
cases perhaps by retaining the services of theore- 
tical instead of practical men, as Inspectors of 
their estates in Ceylon. If each estate had in 
recent} years been worked on its merits, we v/ould 
not now be lamenting loss of quality, bad 
wood, pests on our tea and other factors 
which have been uv)ticed from time to time 
working against us all round ; which loss of time 
may take years to mend ; if ever it will return ; 
80 low has our tea got on so many estates through- 
out the island, from want of proper and regular 
nourishment to the soil. The time has unJoubt- 
ed!y arrived when theoretical men should rest 
on their oars and practical planters be appointed to 
fill their places — of the type of such planters as 
Messrs Clements, Jackson, Keith Rolio, Fraser, 
Alex, Cantlay, Robt. Bowie^ and a fev/ others : a 
class of agriculturists and practical men who are 
few and far between in Ceylon ; who possess fore- 
sight, enterprise and initiative, so seldom come 
across in this country, which, as a rule, has a 
"Follow my Leader" sort of policy to the detriment 
of the island and its products. If only Shareholders 
and Proprietors would raise their voices and insist 
that more practical methods be inaugurated at 
once, their Managers' hands would be forced — 
but none the less strengthened — in adopting 
a bold forward policy on tea estates, before disease 
further attacks our staple product and our soil de- 
teriorates beyond recovery. Wake up, all hands, and 
do, for demand has overtaken supply ; let us all do 
our best to raise the standard of our tea and thereby 
retain our good name for being able to produce the 
best tea in the world, Let us note carefully what 
the gentleman referred to, has advocated on the 
Kintyie property fov the current season, viz., 406 
acres to ba manured, 125 acres to be limed, 275 
acres to have its prunings buried; a very liberal 
treatment on a property 876 acres in extent and 
one I should like to see more generally adopted on 
tea estates tbroughout Ceylon. Let estates be 
liberally treated from Superintendents downwards 
and profits will rise, if the Advertisers and Inspec- 
tors of Estates are drawn from |the right sort ; 
further, see that all works on estates are tho- 
roughly well carried out within reasonable limits, 
let us not forget toshow Ramasamy and Meenatchie 
etc., a fair margin of profit for the work they 
perform and labour will once more flock over to 
Ceylon as they did before this cursed cheap work 
and no permanent profit sy.stem was adopted on 
a great many estates in Ceylon ; where neither 
Jr'roprietor, Shareholder, Superintendents, orKama- 
•samy and Company have benefited.— I would 
ask everyone to read Mr, Joseph Fraser's speech 
at the Associated Tea Estates' meeting in London, 
which was held towards the end of October ; it 
is well worth perusal. I would sign my name to this 
letter, but not wishing to advertise I will content 
myself by remaining,— Yours faithfully, 
A TEA rLANTEi-t AND AGRICULTURIST. 
COCONUT PRICES, 
December 4tl). 
SiR,— 1 see metition was made in a recent 
article in the Obserer of the system adopted in 
Desiccating Mills, facilitating frauds ; but the 
Cliauiber of Commerce Circular prices coconuts 
under three headings, and the prices for Se- 
lected, Ordinai y and Small vary very considerably 
— as much as R15 per 1,000 separating Selected 
from Small. .One can quite understand theexten- 
bive purciiases and lp,rge daily consumption of 
the mills hindering the sorting of nuts into classes 
and paying for them separately. It must also be 
difficult to require a certain percentage of each 
sort to go to a thousand. But is the course not 
practised with cinnamon ? Any way, one should 
be able to say at a glance whether the big nuts 
had been sorted off from a heap ; and that should 
regulate the price. But who is to see to it ? On 
payment by weight should answer ; but that is a 
tedious process. As it is, the grower of big nuts 
and of heavy nuts gains nothing by his enterprise 
in the Desiccating Mills, It is as if the tea buyer 
bought by the chest without reference to its size, 
or by the lb, without reference to quality. — Yours 
truly, COCOS NUCIFERA. 
CAIIDAMOMS IN SCANDINAVIA, 
Watawala, Nov. 30. 
Dear Sir,— The figures given by Mr, Renton 
as imports of Cardamoms into Skandinavia 
are given correct in kilos, though not in lb.: — 
Given by Mr, 
Kilos. Renton as Should be 
lbs. 
Sweden ... 52,526 1,156.672 115,798 
Norway ... . 11,257 247,654 24,817 
Danish lb. 
Denmark ... 39,336 432,696 43,383 
Total lb.. ..183,998 
The population of the three countries to- 
gether is 10 millions— not 7J, as given, Sweden 
heading with about 5,350,000, — Yours faith- 
fully, OSCAR DICKSON, 
[We are much obliged to our Swedish 
friend, for his corrections,— Ed, T.A. 
SILK CULTIVATION IN (CEYLON. 
Kadugannawa, Dec. 5. 
Dear Sir, — When writing to you on this sub- 
ject three months ago, I promised to send you 
notes on some experiments I was making with 
our indigenous wild silkworms. The first objeob 
that I had in view was the domestication of the 
Tusser and other wild worms. In India it was, 
for a long time, thought to be impossible, no 
one having been able to get the moths to pair 
in confinement, but in the Dimbula district in 
1880 my efforts were successful after some 
eighteen months, and I have since then adopted 
new methods with excellent results. Having 
gob together a fairly large stock of eggs by col« 
iecting since January last all the worms, or 
cocoons, of the Tusser and Atlas moths that 
I could get, it occurred to me that I might as 
well at once begin some experiments which I 
have long contemplated, — feeding the worms on 
•certain plants of which there is a considerable 
acreage in many districts which does not bring 
in a very satisfactory revenue to its proprietors ; 
the products relerred to are tea, cardamoms and 
cinchona. To those who have no experience 
in such matters it may seem a vain idea to 
make such an attempt, but these wild worms 
have teen found occasionally feeding on" all 
these three products, though the number of such 
instances is certainly small: one of the finest Atlas 
cocoons I have was spun by a worm found on 
a cardamom plant. I hoped especially to be 
able to hold out the prospect of relief to the: 
tea industry, and though this attempt has not 
been altogether successful) it was so to a certaia 
