514 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. 1, 1904. 
tobacco thin and trashy and withont flavour when 
cared. AJew days after the bads have been taken ont 
the plant, in its effort to '.reproduce itself, will begin 
to throw out shoots from the base of each leaf. These 
suckers, as they are called, should be pulled oS, other- 
VPise they will produce flowers and seed the sane as the 
parent plant. About two weeks after the plant is 
topped the leaves will commence to ripen from the 
bottom. Kipe leaves can easily be told by their mot- 
tled appearance and by being very brittle. As soon as 
ripe they should be taken off and collected in flat 
baskets and carried to the curing house. Great care 
sheuld be used in handling these leaves. Tbey should 
not be exposed to the direct rays of the sun any longer 
than is possible. When they have wilted thoroughly, 
which will be in about an hour after they have been 
pulled, they should be pierced through the butt of the 
stem and strung in pairs with the backs together, 40 to 
50 leaves on a string. They should then be fastened 
to a stick made of any lip;ht wood about 1 inch in 
diameter and 5 feet long, the leaves kept well separated 
This stick is then hung in the racks of the curing- house. 
THE CURING HOUSE, , 
The building of a curing-bouse is a very simple 
method. A shed roof with the ridge running north 
and south thatched with pilms and running down 
within 2 feet of the ground to prevent the rain from 
blowing in makes a first-class curing-house. A curing- 
house should have as little light in it as possible and 
the gable ends should be shut up. As soon as the to- 
bacco is cured, which should be in about 6 or 8 weeks 
from the time it is cnt, it should be taken di>wu and 
bulked, care being taken that all the stems are 
thoroughly cured and dry. The body of the leaf should 
not be too soft. If it is taken down when the leaf ia 
snpple and will not stick together when crumpled in 
the hand it will be right. 
CURING AND FERMENTATION. 
It is a very difficult matter to lay down any definite 
rules for the fermentation of tobacco. There are, how- 
ever, a few things to be avoided if the tobacco is to be 
kept from rotting. It must never be put down without 
an air space of at least four inches from the floor ; if a 
dirt floor this space should be 6 or 8 inches at least. 
The tobacco should be rolled up on the strings in 
bundles and laid straight in a bulk well covered over 
and weighted. This will begin to ferment in 3 or 4 
days. It should then be carefully watched and allowed 
to get to a high temperature, but not so high ns to 
make the leaf tender. When sufficiently high the bulk 
should be changed and allowed to come up into another 
sweat. This rebulking should continue until the tem- 
perature does not rise sufficiently high to be dangerous. 
The tobacco can then be taken off the strings, tied into 
bundles of 15 to 20 leaves and put into tight bales ready 
for market. 
This fermentation process brings out the aroma of 
the tobacco and on the result depends the whole value 
of the crop. Tobacco that has been well grown and 
matured and harvested in good dry weather, will be of 
good body and will not give so much trouble in fer- 
mentation as the thin-bodied tobacco matured in wet 
weather, and the aroma will be in every way superior. 
The main object in producing a cigar tobacco is to get 
a leaf of good body and very fine fibres. Tobacco that 
grows coarse and rank is not good cigar stock. These 
are merely the most essential points to be observed by 
the planter in the growing and handling of the crop. 
The grading of fermented tobacco requires expert 
knowledge and is hardly within the province of the 
groviei,— Indmirial Trinidad, 
HEDGEHOGS IN CEYLON. 
Last July a hedgehog wasfoblained by Mr, G. A. 
Joseph at Wellawatte near Colombo from a man who 
said ^he had I taken it from a hole in the. ground 
beneath a log. 
I, This animal agrees in most of ita'charactera with 
the Sonth Indian hedgehog, EHnaceua micropus, but 
pieseuta certain differences. There is no unde median 
space on the top of the head dividing the spinea 
into two groups, and the extreme tips of the spines 
are not white, but dark. 
Eelaart thought it probable that hedgehogs would 
be found in Ceylon, and Jerdon (Mammals of India, 
1874, p. 63) says that E, micropus *' is probably one of 
the two species stated to be foand in Ceylon." Sir 
Emerson Tennent never saw a specimen, bui was 
told that they occurred here. 
With all this there has never been an authentic 
record of a hedgehog in Ceylon. Accordingly it 
seemed to me to be very unlikely that a mammal 
new to the Fauna of Ceylon, even one with the retiring 
habits of the hedgehog, should turn up for the first 
time in Wellawatte of all places. I have been told, 
however, that hedgehogs have been seen by persons 
now living in Colombo. Others, on the contrary, who 
know the country and its inhabitants well have never 
seen one here before. In fact, I supposed that the 
Wellawatte specimen was in all probability an es- 
caped pet, but as nobody has put in a claim for it, 
and as it seems to differ somewhat from the Sonth 
Indian species, it is possible that it may be a genuine 
member of a Ceylonese fraternity. 
It ia very desirable that more material should be 
procured from unimpeachable localities and trans- 
mitted to the MuFeum, either as gifts, on loan, or for 
sale. The specimen referred to is still alive, and thri- 
ves very well upon raw meat and cooked rice, 
A. WILLEY. 
{Spolia, Zeylanica) 
A CASTILLOA BORER. 
Among some young trees of Castilloa elastica, about 
15 feet tall, in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, was 
one in which the top died and dried completely np. 
On breaking this dead portion up it was found to con- 
tain grubs and an adult beetle, belonging to the family 
Longicornia which includes some of the most des- 
tructive borera in timber. The beetle appears to be 
Epepseotes luscus, of wide distribution in the Eastern 
Archipelago. The grubs are, when full grown, about 
an inch and a half long, legless, white, with a hard 
horny brown head, quite similar to the larvae of other 
1 jngicorns. It burrows in the wood of the Castilloa 
near the pith cavity, going vertically up or down the 
stem, but I found traces of its work also in the central 
pith of the tree. The perfect beetle is three-quarters 
to an inch long and about | inch wide across the back. 
The antennae, 4J inch long and slender. The lowest 
joint globular, and sunk in a raised socket. The next 
joint dilated upwards, rather thick. The remaining 
nine joints are more slender, and all but the terminal 
one thickened at the tip. They are black with fine 
greyish fur. The head is broad and short, mottled 
grey, with patches of yellow fur round the eyes and 
on the cheeks and neck. The eyes are large semi- 
circular surrounding the base of the antennae, black 
with a fiiery red glint. The thorax is rounded and 
margined rather short, grey with a central vertical bar 
of yellow fur and a row of spots of yellow fur on each 
side. There ia a short blunt process on each aide. 
The elytra are oblong about f inch long, blunt and 
slightly excavate at the tips, brown mottled with yellow 
and punctate all over : on each shoulder is a roond black 
velvety spot. The acuteilum is semi-ovate, yellow. 
The under side of the body is covered with very fine 
fawn-coloured down. The le%a are rather long and 
grey. The beetle appears to fly by night as many of 
these longicornia do, I have taken it at rest in the 
day time on the leaves of the Castilloa, nnd in the 
morning have found it on the roada and walla. It 
B evidently a commr n insect here and dee? not confine 
its attacks to Castilloas ; but at present I have not 
traced it to any other tree. One tree which had 
been attacked was saved by passing a wire down 
the hole made by the beetle grub, and pouring 
Jaye's fluid down it. This brought all the grubs out, 
and the tree recovered.— H. N. Eindley, in Straits 
Agricultural BuUetim 
