104 
the: TROPiCAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1891. 
Christie, m. l. c. in his condsmnation of irrigation! 
said that a natwork of roads was necessary. 
Here are some interesting paragraphs ; — 
Cottou Cultivtitioa. — Thia industry may be said to 
have been a complete failure. The seed was supplied in 
the previous year, and although the plants promised 
well up to a certain stage, so much damaee was 
done by the drought that the crop was not worth the 
transport. 
Palmyrah. — Mr. C. A. Murray had theee plants put 
in along several miles of tlie Yoda-ela, and I found 
that the majority of them were doing wall, although 
they have not been speoiady cared for or fenced. I 
hope to procure a large supply in 1891 to extend this 
cultivation. 
Coconuts. — One of the great advantages which " irri- 
gation " has secured for thia Province is thtit coconut 
cultivation is rapidly extending. To any one sceptical 
of this statement I would recommend a vint t ) the 
vllages below the Yoda-ela, or to take Karembewa, in 
Kttlagam koralcjasa specimen. I am having a oeuius 
taken of coconut trees, village by village, which will 
show hereafter whether the cultivation is extending 
or not. 
Indian Corn. — This valuable grain is largely grown 
in chenas ; and that which is produced in Tamman- 
kaduwa wiM.corapire favourably with the finest Kus- 
sian-grown corn I have seen But its value is much 
lost from the unhealthy manner in which it is eaten. 
The pods are half-boiled and thou gnawed off. This 
mode of " cooking " is said to be productive of 
several evils, as may readily be conceived. 
The Leaves of Salvia triloba are extensively used 
in the Levant in the preparation of a kind of tea. 
The plants are simply cut, dried, tied in bundles 
and sold on the market-place, and are found, ready 
for use, in every cafe of Greece, and even in the poorest 
homes. This " Athenian tea," or as the Greeks 
call it, " Phaskomylia tea," is believed to be a 
sure preventive of colds and fevers, and is therefore 
universally drunk in winter weather and by sailors 
at Bea,.— Garden and Forest. 
Gold in Siberia. — From a paper in the 
London Times we quote as follows ; — 
Of all the industries of Eastern Siberia, probably 
the most important is the gold mining iridus'ry. The 
richest washings and mines are those of Yeneseisk 
and Olekminsk, but the yield of metal at these places, 
owing to the present primitive and wasteful method 
of extracting it, is not nearly so large as it might be. 
Mining engineers c.ilculste that when the railway 
ia oonBtrnoted and it is possible to transport hydraulic 
gold-washing machinery they will be able to save at 
from 25 per cent to 80 per cent of the gold which is 
now wasted. When these improved methods of ex- 
tracting the metal have been adopted, they are con- 
fident that the yield will be about double what it uow 
is. At present, owing to the immense distance of the 
washings of Eastern Siberia from Kusaia, it is not 
considered profitable to work " washings" unless tliey 
produce five times as much gold as the least profit- 
able of the washings in the Urala. It is easy to see, 
then, that the railway will give an immense impetus 
to the gold mining industries of Easter Siberia. A 
regular gold fever may, imleed, be expected to set in. 
Few people have any idea of the umnunfc of gold 
which has been obtained already from Eastern and 
Central Siberia. * » * EaHtern and Central 
Sibf-ria has alonp given to Rus.sia during the pa-t 54 
years, about ,£120,OUO,00O worth of gold. The Ural 
an'i Western Siberia Imve, I am told, furnished an 
even greater quantity. And, when it is remembered 
that The yield of gold would be much larger— some 
Bay twice as large— if proper mining machinery wcr(i 
in use, and that much of the gold which is extra .ted 
ui-.vtr finds i's way to Russia, but is fiurrpptitiously 
disposed of to tlio Chinese nnd private traders, no one 
will bi! surprised that the Government are anxious 
to keep a firm hold of their territories in Eastern 
Sibaria and turn them to better account, 
IMPOETS OF TEA INTO THE UNITED 
STATES. 
These show a gain over last year. The March 
imports as compared with last year were light, being 
only 2,244,783 pounds, against 5 640,951 p mnds in 
1890. For the nine months ending March 31st the 
imports were 75,009,214 pounds, ag-iinst 71 79i 298 
pounds for the same time in 189i). — American Grocer. 
The New Formosa Tea-Crop is larger and finer 
than it has been for many years. J he grower 
thus far have bepn a little uppish on account of 
the superior quality of the leaf , so that t^ie chief 
if not the sole buyers thus far have been the 
Chinese hongs. The increased output however will 
soon cause a fall in prices and a heavy shipment 
to Amoy. — Avioy Times. 
Pkpper, Paddy, Tigees, and Bat Cavf.s in 
Pekak. — The Report on Trong and Kurau, for April 
and May, stated : — 
During fh« month I walked thrnugh the pppper 
garden of H-iji M'-homed Yusuf (tlie Assistant Kathi) 
at Ayfr Terjuii (Ulu Suugei Tinggi), who hRS taken 
a lease of 80 acrfs for pepper cultivation, but only 
from 15 to 20 acres are «t present planted, none of 
the plants b'iug more than 2§ years o;d, but looking 
strong and healthy, and had they betn trained up 
dead-wood poets, instead of up dedap trees, the owneT- 
I venture to say, would hnve had a return from the 
plants this year. In a small pepper garden from 7 
to 8 years old tho plants having been trained up dead- 
wood posts, are in full bearing, and looking remark- 
ably well. The owner mi^ht havB congratulated him- 
self had he had 100 or 200 acres planle I up wi h such 
pepper. Tho inhabitants are evidently keenly alive as 
to tho pepper future of the di'triot, as Fre.sh appli- 
cations for laud to cultivate pepper are coming ia fast. 
The padi crop usually a remarkabiy good one, was 
this last season par:ially des'ro.;,ed by rats. 
It would be a good plan to try the system of 
poisoned grain adopted throughout the Ausiralian 
colonies for the destruction of rab^'itp, and which so 
far has been the only reliable exterrainati-r of tbat 
pest, though scientific men have racked their brains 
to substitute a better mode of destruction, but with- 
out any great show of success. 
Since my arrival in the district two tigers have been 
shot by Mat Sttlleh, a Patani man, tbe same man 
having shot no less than five of tliem within the last 
three months, whilst there are several irorR in ihe neigh- 
bourhood, as was proved on the night of the 18th, a 
settler having two of his cows killed and eaten, and a 
third seriously injured. The brutes are of suoh a 
ravenous nature that they carried away and ate up 
the body of a dead comrade killed the previous night. 
Doubtless they are attracted by the herds of Indian 
cattle allowed to run loose in the kampongs during 
the night. All were shot by spring guns ingeniously 
set in tbo jungle. A well-known gentleman having 
offered a reward of $50 for the dead body of the first 
large tiger brought in, there is every reason to believe 
that, in this district at any rate, their extermination is 
at hand. 
The Eatu Kurau rock, standing about a mile from 
the foot of tbe Hijau range, is worthy of note, and 
well worth a vi^it. It is an isolated, perpendi- 
cular limestone rock of several hun dred f ( et in 
height, now overgrown with trees, with the Sungei 
Kurau winding round tlie foot of it. Tbe largest 
cave of interest ^is on the eastern side of the rock, 
about 50 ft. in length, and proportionaJe!y broad, 
into which I rode a large elephants ; at the 
further end of this cave gapes an enormous black 
cavern, extending perpendicularly upwards ; I had no 
means of as^ertiining to what height it ran. Thousands 
of bats were flying in tbe darkne-s, frightened at our 
approMch, their wings making the Cives resound with 
a noise like distant thunder, whilst the floor of the 
cave was from 4 ft, to 5 ft, deep in bat guano. There 
are several other caves of minor interest in the ruok, 
said to have been the lairs of wild beasts, in th* 
remembranee of tho oldeiit inhabitants, 
