13S THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1891. 
and Trading Oompany (Ld.), which, according to the 
prospectus, proposes to efff cfe this vptv (leaWn^Xe reform. 
The capital of the oompany is £50,000, divided into £5 
shares, of which the prospectus inform us £30,000 
worth have already been subscribed for in England. 
The directorate includes the names of Dr. George 
Yeaies Hunter, late Civil Surgeon, Kurrnchee; Genersl 
McLeod Innes, R. E., late Arcountant-General to the 
Government ot India ; Colond Erne':*; Scbrciber, of 
Wokiug ; Captain W. F. Anneslev, of East Sheen ; 
and Mr. John Griper, Managing Direcl' r in India ; 
and a local Board of Direotore is in conrse of formation, 
Mr. S. W. Anderson, Kurrecbee, being Ihe Secretary 
pro ttm. The Company proposes to purchase an a going 
concern the cofcton-sinuing fsotory, and the bnilding?, 
Btores, plant, machinery, too's, appUauces, and all 
efteots connected with it, at Khokar. Sind ; to ereot 
two other ginning factories of a similar kind at D-ra 
Gazi Khan, aad at Mozaffargirh, in the centre of 
neighbouring cotton districts in the South Punjab, 
and to develop and work the same under one control ; 
and to take over the business of Mr. J. Griper of 
steam irrigation sud the supply of water to ryots 
for the cultivation of cotton and other prcdnoe, 
together with the cultivation leases cf about 32,000 
acres on the Sarfrsz, Imamva, and other Governmrat 
irrigation canals of the rioh lands of the Delta of the 
Indus, and to irrigate and cultivate them. Ginning 
operations last roughly from December to April, and 
in thut time, according to the prospectus, each factory 
working twenty of Mes'^rs. Piatt's mnchinGs for six 
days a week, with an output of 100 mauuds of 
marketable cotton per day, can make a net 
profit of E27,000, at an exchange of Is. 5d., or 
say, £1,912, or £5,736 on the intended three 
establishments for ginniog alone. Added to this is 
the merchant's profit on the purchase of the cotton 
from the grower of about one rupee per maand — or 
on the three factories £2,550, malting a total profit 
on the two items of ginning and purcbapiug oottcn 
of £8,286 uett. At the termination ot the ootton 
season, the engines, which are portable, are removed 
to th« irrigation works, where it is estimat^d 
by the promoteis very profitable employment will 
be found for them. The cultivator ia Sind durioar 
the irrigation season ususUy takes up for cuUi- 
tioB a small area of about 20 gheribs (10 acres), 
which is named a Huvla, if worked by a Per- 
sian wheel. He requires three pairs of builock'>, 
or two camels and one pair of bullocka, for this 
area, and two men and a boy. Two pairs of bullocks 
are employed day and night at the wheel raising 
■water, and one man is employed in making small 
channels to convey the water raised over the land. 
After about a month it ia moistened sufficiently to 
allow of ploughing being commenced. The third 
pair of bullocks is then set to plough j but water is 
still required to be continually raised day and night 
until the close of the season. Couspquent on the 
limited area for which a Persian wheel can provido 
water, only land immediately adjacant- to theoflnalx 
can, as a rule, be cultivated by lift irrigation, and all 
beyond 1,000 yards or thereabouts is fallow virgin 
soil. Lift cultivation is open to such enormous risks 
owing to the rise and fall of the Indus and con- 
sequently of the canals, that the ryot is at one time 
raisiofc water from possibly a two to three fept lift, 
and the next week ten to twelve feet, making a 
difference of two-thirds of the quantity of water 
raised, the loss on the crop, as remarked by 
General Fife, in bis Note on this subject, being 
correspondingly great. An average kharit crop in 
Sind require* about 20 inches, and an ordinary 
Persian wheel under favourable circumetancas as to 
height of the Indus, ko., it is computed can only 
provide 12 to 16 inches. On the other hand, when 
steam irrigation comes into use, it is claimellyihe 
promoters of the company under notice Ihnt a 
15-iiich c'Mitrifugal pnmp raisinp; 4,000 gallons 
Cmakers guarantue 5,000 fjallons) of water per minute, 
at lifts of 15 t'j 20 feet can raise 633,000,000 gallons 
ill 110 dajs, cr one season. This equals 24 inches 
to 1,000 acres and 22,622 gallons is equal to one inch 
to one acre. Ono ongino and pump will irrigate 800 
acres, while one Persian v/heel will only irrigate 
10 acres, so that it would require eighty Persian 
wheels to do the work of one steam.pump. To do the 
work therefore of which one engine and pump are 
capable, the ryot, according to the prospectus, at first 
spends R3,2fl0, in wheel, pots, pans, Stc, without in- 
cluding the value of tbe 480 bullocks (about JllO,000 
in Sind) required, and their food for the entire year. 
8teim irrigation will release his bullocks from the 
main part of their toil, and enable him to plough 
fort3'-five acres instead of ten ; and for doing this 
work the ryot 'P, it ia stated, willing to pay seven- 
twelfths of the crop produced. The company irrigate 
his land, but it is onltivated entirely by the ryot 
liimself and at his own expense. In conricction with 
this project it is poiuted out that the Hyderabad- 
O mprkote Railway ia already commsnoed, a:id passes 
TOiihiu eight miles of the factory and land proposed 
to be irri^jated, while the Delhi-Kotri Railway has 
been survey d, and a company is about to be formed for 
it. As 10 ginning, it is also to be noted that the average 
rate obtained in the Bombv Presidency per maund of 
82 lb. is lU-5 as egaios*^ R2 to R2-4 in Sind, while the 
cost of wood fuel in the Bombay Presidency averages 
Els per maund, and in Sind R13 per maund. 
[Mr. Akbar ot Negombo, the enterprising coconut 
planter, who first systematioally applied irri- 
gation to palm trees on a big scale ia Ceylon, 
utilizes the steam engine — devoted to the pumps 
in the dry season, — in tht^ wet season, to run a 
eawmill. — Ed T. JJ 
C<'FFEE dt;- iN j_ o:. 
Dear Sir, — Coffue cuiLivaiion v.^oul , ete a ^o he 
on the tapis again ! Mr. Pringle's letters to the 
Observer are interesting and his oonolusions rea- 
sonable, but his proposed remedies appear to be 
impracticable. I am inclined to believe with General 
Braybrooke, who, if I mistake not, wrote in your 
journal years ago, that the dieease was to be looked 
for at the root of the co£f"6 tree, due to some 
unfavourable condition of the soil; for there can 
be no doubt that there is & very great diminution 
and in some instances total absence ot the white 
thread like rootlets which v.-ere in former days so 
abundant just below th-j surface nil round the 
foot of healthy coffee trees, lu writing to one cf 
your contemporaries a few days ago, your " alpha- 
betical " friend expressed the opinion that bethought 
the value cf salt in agriculture was somewhat ex- 
aggerated. It may be bo, yet I mention that some 
time back I procured a cask of compressed sea- 
weed and applied it aa a manure to a few coffee 
trees growing in my compound in Kandy, and it 
had a very beneficial effect as regards the appear- 
ance of the traos; but unfortunately I left Kandy 
before the time of fruiting, and am unable 
to say the after results. Examination, however, 
of the root3 of trees a short time after 
the application of the seaweed showed that 
numerous little white rootlets wore permeating 
ihe cakes of sea- weed in every direction. An 
experienced planter told me the other day that 
bug and leaf-disease are repugnant to each other. 
That however bad bug may be, it disappears im- 
mediately hemileia puts in an appearanoa. There 
must be some change coming over our seasons, 
for leaf. disease has come several weeks earlier 
than usual this year, and bug accordingly took its 
departure correspondingly early. This change is fur* 
ther indicated by the very unusual phenomenon of 
albatross being seen in the latitude of Ceylor 1 an 
occurrence I imagine never before heard of. — 
Yours faithfully, E. F. TBANCHELL. 
TEA PRUNING^ 
July 8th. 
Dear Sir,-— We do not want an " Arboriculturist" 
to teach us tea-pruning. The science of f-oroing 
bushes to give us the maximum amount of iushea 
