47^ 
THE TliOPlCAL AaRICULTURIST. 
tJAN. 1, 1902 
view the movement is most desirable. Those who 
look upon green tea manufacture entirely by itself 
and Ha-^SO its returns without reference to its reaction 
on black, miss the oruci il argument in its favour. 
We are nui in a nnsition ftt present to prom'se large 
profiip on gLc }ier se, but the profit exists when 
the effect of a -vi hJriwal of leaf from black tea 
manufacture and ilie convenience of reducing large 
rushes of leaf is considered. 

PROGRESS IN UGANDA. 
In October, 1900, and May of the present year - 
(says the " A<;rit;ultural Journal") samples of 
India rubber were obtained from the MapiUa 
district of Zululand. The rubber was diaun 
from the lbau<;u tree, a tree wiiicU grows all 
throno-U tiie district. The samples were for- 
warded to the scieniific and !.'fhnical depart- 
ment of the Iin|)erial Institute for analysis 
and reiiort. Professor Wyndiiam K Dunstan, 
the director of the department, in tiie course 
of his reports, states that the samples were sub- 
iested to critical tests and are },'enuine .rubber, 
'but of varying quality. The samples were sub- 
mitted to cDmmercial experts in rubber for the 
purp'jse of determining their value The best 
was valued at 3s. 2d. per lb., and the worst at 
Is. lid. Whilst freely giving' testimony to the 
cro'od quality of the rubber, the reports draw 
attention to the large (luantity of extranepst 
matter in the samples— bits of woods, &c.— whieh 
necessarily aifeeted the commercial value of the 
rubber.— iV«i5a^ Me-curii, Nov. 2.5- 
According to a letter wltich has just reached 
London, the material progress which is being 
made ia far-oil" Uganda is extremely rapid. The 
Protectorate is now included in the po.stai union, 
and cart roads are being constructed to the 
Mile ai; Kioon Falls, and also to Lake Albert. 
The latter will, it is understood, be replaced at 
no distant date by a light railway. Two steam- 
ers, very much laiger than the William Mac- 
kin'non, are to be run on the Victoria Nyanza, 
and a smaller one is to be placed on Lake Albert. 
F.i-ick buildings fi>r native chiefs and British 
otlicials are everywhere springing into existence, 
new plants are being introduced, and the rubber 
industry is being cfa-elully fostered. 
T!?A rr.OSPECTS 1!AD. 
An expert has reported unfavorably upon the 
prospects of tea gi owing in the Protectorate, but 
coll'ee appears x,<> be more promising. Experi- 
ments in the cultivation of cocoa, oranges, pine- 
apples, and other fruits are being made. Changes 
in the' habits and customs of the Baganda are 
also taking place as a result of their as.sociation 
wiih Europeans ; many of them riow sit at table, 
and even recognise the use of knives and forks, 
whilst one of the leading chiel's has gone to the 
unheard-of length of permitting his wife to eat at 
table with him and to walk arm in-arm with him 
down the public streets.— xliorjij/ir/ Leader, 
Nov. 22. 
MR. STANLEY GAilDINER'S EXPEDI- 
TION TO THE MALDIVES. 
NAliRA l'lVE AND ROU I'H; OE THE 
KXPKDIITON. 
[liY THK T.K.\ni'',R, MIX OAUDrNEr!.] 
At the end of Mandi, 1S<)9, I left Entdarul fur Ceylon 
i 1 the company of i\lr L A jiorradaile. On arrival 
at Colomb > we found ttiat the Hoard of Trade 
6 f. Ccyl'm had ju t left for Minikoi owing to a wreck 
on that atoll. This necessitated a delay of seven 
weeks, before we could hope to sail thither, a de- 
tention futher increased to eight weeks owing to 
stress of weather. Wr Borraiiaile accordingiy pro- 
ceeded to the .Inffaa Peninsul.t, where he spent a 
month iu familiarising himsi-lf with the life and 
conditions on coral reefs. I meantime prepared our 
stores, and made arrangements for the .\Ialdive cruise, 
subsequently visiting the raised limestone hills and 
area of the north of Ceylon. After returning to 
Colombo I traversed the entire coast between Negombo 
and Dondara Head, a distance of about 120 miles. 
Mr Boriadaile joined me, and then settled down 
for a fortniglit at Wcligama — the Beligam of Prof. 
Haeckcl — where there is a deep bay witii reefs of 
small size across its entrance. The rich variety of 
animal life on the reefs both here and off the Jaffna 
coast as compared to the rec-fs of tlie Maldives and 
Minikoi is a most uotict-ablM fertuie. 
After a tedious week's dettrutiou i.i Colombo, we 
flually left Cevlon for Minikoi on June 17th, ex- 
periencing a very heavy north-west gale the whole 
way ; iu spite of this the sea one night was white 
with phosphorescence, a very unusual phenomenon in 
these welters. We located ourselves, and built a 
bungalow at a distance of about cne third of a mile 
from the south-v;est end of Minikoi island, under 
the shadow of the lighthouse the boat belonging to 
which was through the kindness of Capt Channer, 
K N, freely placed at our disposal. The island here 
is about 470 yards across between tide macks, and a 
broad ride has been cut, giving the only open space 
of any size in the island. The vegetation is extremly 
dense, and forms a low jungle of Fandaus, IJibiseus, 
Jlcrnandea, Eicinus, coconut and other trees, with 
Feiu/jliis ai-itlula, Seaevola koenitjii and Toumefortea 
arfieiitea on tlie shores. At the south-west end of 
the island is a shrine, the grave of a holy, Moslem 
sheik, connected by a gOod, shaded path with the 
village iu the centre of the island. A small settle- 
ment formerly existed round the shrine, but it has 
loLig been abandoned, and the jungle near it is now 
far thicker and less trodden than elsewhere. The 
laud has the same charajter up to the village, but 
further north it is much more open, and can indeed 
be traversed almost anywhere.-!- Our situation then 
was not unnaturally the best possible for the land 
fauna, on which the lighthouse lamp too had doubtless 
no inconsiderable influence. The open ride formed 
both by night and day our b-st collecting ground 
sugaring never meeting with any measure of success 
elsewhere. 
Vide Beport Brit. Ass. pp. 400—2, 1900. 
+ Owing to an old arrangement the produce half 
the island is deemed to belong to the Bebe of 
CannBHore. An arbitrary line of division exists near 
the village with gates and guards, who rigorouslv 
exact three-fifths of the cooianuts gathered south of 
the fence. In this portion no timber of large size 
or old growth exists, the whole surface at one time 
having been cleared and planied. Subsequently on 
the hold of the Bebe becoming weakened or relaxed 
vegetation was allowed again to assume its sway' 
resulting in the present, dense, jungly growth. On 
the management of the Bebe's dominions being un- 
dertaken by the British Government, the old line 
of division as found was retained permanently with 
much injustice to the inhabitants, as it had been 
formel.y periodically open to revision. Since that 
time the north half of the island has been very 
rapidly washing awaj', while the south half has if 
anything, been increasing somewhat in breadth. The 
north half cannot now annually support one-third of 
the present population, while the south has become 
a dense j unsle, rapidly going to Waste. It producea 
annually under the present system only a few hundred 
rupees' worth of coconuts, which the Goverument 
might well coniroute for a fixed annual charge. 
t 
