ApRir, 1, 1904.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
673 
extending over many years. The Aasociation, although 
they have lo3t the services of Colonel Grant, V. C., 
who was in charge of the experiment during the time 
he was at Ootacamund, will not miss willing or enthu- 
siastic assistancd in Major Bagnall. Hodgson and 
Mr Oakes who have kindly offered to see the fry 
through the hatcheries at Snowdon and distributed 
when old enough and large enough for that to be 
carried out with safely. It seema the present intention 
is to place the fry in the upp^r ttibutaries of the 
Pykara River, in the Emerald Valley stre;im and at 
Avalanche, where introductions before did well. la 
the Emerald Valley stream, fish turning the scile at 
four pounds have been taken, and afforded the sports- 
man much amusement in his efforts to land them — 
but alas I not even this size was found with spawn. 
The weather in Ootacamund just now, though cold and 
frosty in the morning, is hot in the middle of the day, 
when it may be necesaary to cool the waters of the hat- 
cheries artificially with ice. If this is done the labours of 
the gentlemen above named, who have undertaken three 
the task, will be heavy and unremitting, They have en- 
gaged the services of an overseer who will give constant 
attention to the subject, and perhaps be able to prevent 
those accidents that heretofore dismounted the results 
of these experiments. I should not omit to add here 
that the hatcheries are entirely new ones constructed 
last year on plans devised and executed by Mr Gordon 
Hadfield, the D F O, who is known to be a keen 
sportsman and one who has always taken an interest 
in the trout experiment of the Association. It would 
appear that a trial was made of the fry just hatched in 
a natural stream to the north of Ootacamund, where 
danger is said to arise from land-crabs numerous in 
the locality. A member of the Association has taken 
charge of this venture and is advised to have the crabs 
caught and destroyed. Whether this can be effectually 
done, however, is doubtful, and the chances of flood 
too will have to be reckoned with. The cost of the 
first consignment of ova already incurred is said to be 
R770— with R450 yet to pay. The Nilgiri Association 
has been asked to lend its co-operation to the Ceylon 
Pishing Association, which proposes to import ova 
under expert transport, the co-operation to consist in 
the Nilgiri Association obtaining future consignments 
from Ceylon rather than from Home. This arrange, 
ment will obviate much risk at present run, and the 
Nilgiri Association has accordingly consented to place 
an order for the current year in Ceylon to the extent 
of from 10,000 to 15,000— Pioneer, March 5. 
(To the Editor, "Madras Mail.") 
Sir,— I have just seen the letter from "TEW " ■■ 
in your issue of Thursday last, regarding trout- 
rearing here. It is most annoying to think that 
whilst the Association has been groping ia the 
dark there was all the time one among us, {though 
alas ! unknown) who had only to step foiward and 
save the lives of thousands of innocent trout fry, 
sacrificed by the misdirected zeal of members who, 
unfortunately, can never have had the wide ex- 
perience afforded to " I E W" by the Berkshire 
trout. For instance, who (excepting an expert) 
could have known until too late that "Frame 
Food" and "Grape Nuts" were not the best 
food for trout fry ? Surely the advertisements of 
the above are a sufficieno guarantee of their 
Dourshing qualities? Again, it must be admitted 
that mistakes have been made in the age at which 
trout have been turned out, but still, humanity 
and kindness to animals has always been a precept 
amongst the members of the N G A, and surely 
it cannot be blamed for adhering invariably to 
tiie broad principle of tievcr turning out young 
trout until they were properly weaned ? Is it too 
much to ask "TEW " to drop h\sincog7iito and 
come forward and help us ? 
Idiots, Nilgiri Colnet H.\tcherie3, 
—ilf. Mail. 
Se»pagQ 609 T,At """^ 
PAKA RUBBER SEED PRODUCTS. 
Sir — I h ive been very interested in the preli- 
minary report on the Para niliber tree seeds. 
Several things, however, surprise niein this report, 
especially the remark that Para rubber meal could 
not be utilised in any way, Seeing liiat it contains 
over 1 per cent of pliosphoric acid, besides a fair 
amount of nitrogen, why not use it in the place of 
rape meal as a dressing for grass land ? Large 
quantities of rape meal are used ia this distiict 
and throughout the Midlands and the north 
of England by farmers for this purpose, the farmers 
paying £4 10s per ton without any grumbling. Our 
light land on the experimental station farm renponds 
very well to this dressing. I am also interested 
in the Para rubber cake. If you could arrange to 
send or f>et a ton of this cake, also a ton of meal, 
I would be willing to pay for the same and all 
carriage in crder to compare the feeding value and 
digestive value in our experimental feeding home 
on sheep, and also the manurial value of the meal, 
J. Stewart Remington, 
The Laboratories, Grange-over-8ands, Lancashire. 
[.Mr Remington is a well-known expert agri- 
cultural chemist and experimenter. — Ed.]— Z, E, 
Jouryial, [See article elsewhere.— Ed. T.A.] 
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS. 
EUROPEAN MANAGER FOR THE COTTON 
STATION. 
Mr. G J C Mee, of Perth estate, Horana, 
brother of the well-known Kalutara planter 
and sportsman Mr. G C Mee, has been ap- 
pointed by Government as Superintendent of 
the cotton-growing experimental station at 
Madawachchi which is about 80 acres in 
extent and situated near a new tank named 
Maha Illupalawa. The sum voted for the 
experiment is RIO.OOO. Mr. J C Willis re- 
cently visited India and brought back several 
specimens of India cotton seed which he con- 
siders only grows on black soil. There are 
also large plots of American and Egyptian 
cotton. 
AGRICULTURAL GARDENS AT JAFFNA. 
Government is about to establish atJafEna 
an Experiinental Garden for experiment- 
ing in cotton and other useful agricul- 
tural p) odunts as is done at the Anuradha* 
pura and BaduUa gardens, Mr. Mee will 
superintend the Jaffna Gardens, the site of 
which is likely to be " The Park"— the resi- 
dence of the Government 4gent. 
« 
TIIE CACAO CROP OF BRAZIL. 
The cacao season of 1903 is much later than 
that of 1902. Cacao is a very erratic crop, and the 
oldest iiihabitant will not venture a prediction on it. 
The last of the crop of the previous year was practically 
all in the manufacturer's possession by this time. 
This year it is still coming in abundantly and will 
probably run far into September. The cacao season 
includes two crops, beginning respectively, in January 
and June. The summer crop is said to be a shade 
better (because drier) than the winter crop, though 
the yield should be about equal. This year more 
cacao came into the market in July than was received 
during the entire sis months preceeding. A few days 
about 2,000 tons were stored in Para and every steamer 
was taking away large cargoes of it. However, the 
clema<ad 99Utiaue3 strong nad (he pric€ good 
