476 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1904. 
MR. H. 0. PEARSON'S VISIT TO KALUTARA 
RUBBER DISTRICT, 
Mr. H. C. Pearson, Editor of the India Bubber 
World, from whom an interesting letter on 
Castilloa appeared in our columns recently, 
has been paying a visit to the Kalutara rubber 
district. He is full of admiration for the 
growth of rubber in Kalutara district and saw 
some tapping done, with satisfactory results. 
The canker, recently reported upon by Mr, 
Carruthers, he remarks upon as nothing serious 
and not likely to injure Para Rubber in the 
least, Extensions appear to be going on apace. 
Asked as. to the amount of tapping a tree 
could stand, Mr. Pearson said that was a 
question for your Peradeniya. experts to solve. 
No one really knows what the latex is to the 
tree, whether it is sap and life -a reserve stock 
of nourishment on which it can draw in dry 
weather ; or whether the vigour of the tree is 
little decreased or even improved by tapping, 
according to the frequency and regularity of the 
performance. The methods of tapping here — V- 
shape, or unconnected slanting cuts, or herring- 
boning — differ from those in force in Mexico, 
where the native wielder of the cutlass, or 
machette, makes a connected zigzag cut up the stem 
and the whole of the latex flows down to the 
foot of the tree. Asked as to close planting, 
Mr. Pearson did not ihink sufficient was known 
about its effect to condemn it : but he would be 
inclined to regard the danger as not so much 
one of drawing too much from the soil as of 
not allowing the sun to get to the soil and to 
the bark of the tree. 
Mr. Pearson also visits the Kelani Valley, 
making use of all his available time for 
seeing Ceylon Rubber growing. He sailed for the 
Straits by the P. & O. "Bengal " 
^ . — 
GREEN TEA INTO BLACK. 
CALCUTTA ALSO MAKES THE DISCOVERY. 
A method of turning green tea into black has 
been discovered by Mr. Judge, and the process, 
which, we are informed, is an extremely simple 
one, will be communicated free to all purchasers of 
the complete installations of the Deane Judge 
machines for manufacturing green teas. This is an 
important consideration, for the green tea fannings 
and dust, which at present are of little value, by 
being readily converted into black tea fannings 
and dust will fetch their full value in the market. 
Green tea makers will thus gain a great advantage 
from the concession, for they will stand to make a 
considerable extra profit. The probable effect of 
the discovery will be a further impetus to launch 
into the manufacture of greens on an extensive 
scale. The prices for green teas which are now 
being realised in the local market are so extremely 
satisfactory that we have little doubt but that 
many more gardens will take up the manufacture 
in right earnest next year. There is every thing 
to gain by so doing ; and if the two industries are 
properly worked and dove-tailed one into the 
other, there cannot possibly accrue any loss. So 
long as pale liquor and neat leaf are distinctive 
marks of the finished teas placed on tlie market, 
they will always realise the remunerative rates 
which are being paid for them at the present time. 
And there is no difficulty in gardens making and 
keeping up a constant supply of such, now that the 
requisite machinery is avilable. —7nc?ian Plan- 
ters' Gazette, 
COTTON GROWING IN AFRICA. 
Berlin, Nov. 18. — Some iDstrnctive statistics Bhowin;; 
ths steady growth of the Geiman cotton trade and 
textile industry are published by the Vossische Zeitung 
today. The growing importaace of the German textile 
industry, and especially of the cotton trade, naturally 
demands the development of sources of raw material 
which shall be independent of commercial and political 
relations with other conntriea. The experiments in 
cotton-growing, which have for some time past been 
made on the Went Coast of Africa under British ana- 
pices, have been followed with the clcse^t attention by 
the German colonial authorities in Africa. For the 
systematic organisation of the work in German East 
Africa an official cotton inspector has been appointed 
who is a cotton larmer of wide experience from the 
North American cotton States. The inspector's head- 
quarters will be at Dar es-Salaam, and his duties will 
be to see that the cultivation of the cotton is conducted 
in a manner which may lead to n'timate success, and 
to snrvey^the sites of new plantations, in the choice of 
which proximity to rivers and to contemplated rail- 
ways is to be a paramount consideration. This year's 
harvest in the coast regions of German East. Africa is 
estimated at 50,000 German pounds weight Fresh 
plantations have been laid out iu the following dis- 
tricts -in Dares Salaam about 600 acres, in Bagamoya 
about 240 acres, in Kilwa about 220 acres, and in 
Mohorro about 50 acres. The cotton which has lately 
been received from the Lindi and Tange districts is 
valued at between 70 and 80 marks (or shillings) per 
100 German pounds (50 kilogrammes). This crop is 
said to be equal to the best "white Egyptian" and to be 
suitable for the finer-spun yarns as well as for worsted. 
In Togoland a cotton inspectorate has also been 
created, with its office at Lome; and in this district 
the cnltivation of cotton by natives is making rapid 
progress. According to the latest advices the crop 
from the Togo " Hinterland " is expected to reach 
several hundred bales. It is noteworthy that the 
samples of the new Togo crop which have arrived are 
rated as being superior the first crop and are classed 
as " fnlly good middling." The English cotton expert 
from the Gold Coast is said to have expressed a very 
favourable opinion of the progress made by cotton- 
growing in Togoland and to have observed that the 
end of June or the beginning of July was also the 
time for planting the cotton in the Gold Coast Colony. 
The undeveloped condition of the country naturally 
renders the question of transport one of the utmost 
importance. The solution of this difficult ques- 
tion is being promoted on the one hand by the 
establishment of an inoculating station in charge 
of an army staff-snrgeon to combat the dreaded 
"tsetse" fly, and on the other hand by anrveya 
for the new railway line from Kilwa to Lake 
Nyassa. The construction of the projected railway 
from Lome to Palime will be entrusted by the Govern- 
ment to a firm of contractors, and upon its completion 
the new line will be transferred, together with the 
wharves and coast railways, to a company under 
special conditions safeguarding the interests of the 
colony. In German South-West Africa the prospects 
of cotton cnltivation are also favourable. Several 
large samples of cotton grown from the famons "sea 
island " seed are declared by experts to be of extremely 
good quality. The farmers are proposing to form 
an association for damming the Swakop river in order 
to utilise its waters for the development of cotton- 
growing. It is further proposed to canalise the river 
Kunene in the north in order to prepare the soil for 
cotton-culture in that part of the colony. 
The German textile industry and the various 
chambers of commerce are rivalling each other in 
