,196 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September j, 1891. 
MOEE UPON THE SUBJECT OF MANA GRASS. 
We are glad at length to Icarn that a very, 
large measure of suocess h&e attended the ez- 
periments whioh have for so long been making 
at home with the mana grass which grows in 
such wild profusion on the mountain "patanas" 
of this island. Our anticipations previously 
ospressad in these columns seem to have 
been for a very long time under a cloud 
consequent upon repeated failures of one kind 
and another, and the news that these have now 
been replaced by an, at all events partial, success, 
will be welcome no doubt to all who have the 
interests of the colony at heart. 
Nevertheless we do not disguise from ourselves 
that much yet remains to be accomplished, and 
probably many as yet unforeseen difficulties remain 
to be overcome, before we can indulge in the 
expectation of seeing our formerly expressed anti- 
cipations realised. But at least we now know that 
mana grass pulp, when treated with 25 per cent of 
waste paper or of old gunny bags ot other compara- 
tively valueless material of that character, can be 
made into a stout and solid board, which has one 
advantage over that made from wheat 
straw, inasmuch as it is without that amount 
of silica which tends to make straw board 
a brittle and intractable material. We should have 
been glad to hear that our Lotidon correspondent 
bad seen tea boxes formed in the solid from mana 
grass pulp ; but although he has been promised 
that this can and shall be done, the required 
machinery had not when his last letter was written 
been completed. But he had seen two cylindrical 
casks or packing eases of considerable size made 
of the mana grass board, and ho reports that these 
were as strong and as solid as could be desired. 
Very little ingenuity, he feels assured, is required 
to compress the pulp into the form of a box 
complete in itself in every respect save as regards 
the lid. 
We trust that this assurance may be confirmed. 
Cylindrical packages such as have already been 
made would occupy too much space on shipboard to 
be likely to receive adoption by our planters, although 
in other respects they would appear to be admirably 
suited for the package of tea. It cannot be expected 
that the manufacture of jointless tea boxes could 
be carried on at home with mana grass pulp. 
In the first place, the freight homewards of the 
raw material would be prohibitory, and in the 
second, that of the empty square boxes out- 
wards would not be less so. If, therefore, success 
is in the future to attend the manufacture, 
it is certain that this must be done locally, and 
in such positions as may ensure the cost of 
transport of the made boxes to estates being kept 
as low as may be practicable. As at present 
foreshadowed, it would appear that the Universal 
Barrel Company of Boxmoor which has conducted 
the latest experiments has it in contemplation to 
obtain from the Stanley-Wrightson Syndicate its 
patent rights as regards Ceylon, and possibly as 
regards other countries in which mana grass 
may be found in any abundance. These secured, 
a factory containing the required machinery would 
be erected out here and started with a properly 
qualified man in charge. Wo can do no more to 
aid in the accomplishment of this when the time 
comes for doing so— should this arrive — than to 
suggest the sites the most eligible for such a 
factory. Water power it must of course have ; 
and it should be so situated that it can possess 
its own siding to the railway. It will further be a 
nine qua non that it be in tolerable proximity to 
lunde growing mana grass in AbHOdAQae> SbQU^d 
any ot our readers be able to suggest sites fulfilling 
these several conditions, we shall take care that 
tlieir suggestions are made known in the proper 
quarter at home, to which they would doubtless 
prove very valuable. 
It may be a question whether, after a time, it 
would not be necessary to cultivate fields of 
mana grass ; and we should think this could be 
easily and cheaply done, on the vast expanses of 
patana which stretch in all directions from Nuwara 
Eiiya and which exist in other parts of the mountain 
region, on the western and eastern sides alike. 
TEA-DEINKING.— A WARNING TO MOTHERS. 
By Db. Andrew Boss, Molong. 
(_An exaggerated and misleading article. Tea is, 
on the whole, the best and certainly the most 
easily prej-Bred of the non-alcoholic stimulants. 
But, of course, there can be excess even in tea 
drinking, and there may occur occasional cases 
where constitutional peculiarities oontra-indioate 
its use Ed. T. A-I 
The following remarkable case is published with a 
view of putting parents and heads of families on their 
guard 68 to the evil effects arising from the use of 
strong tea drinking— in other words, the too common 
aud pernioious custom of allowing young children to 
drink tea at meal time. Some few months back I was 
consulted about the health tf a young boy between 6 
and 6 years of age belonging to Mr. K , and who 
was in the habit at meal time of partaking freely of 
strong tea. The boy until within the last 12 months 
had always enjoyed good health, but lately had be- 
come somewhat dull and stupid, with palpitation at the 
least excitement or exertion, a tendency to convul- 
sions— very restless at night, and sleep much disturbed, 
loss of memory, with at times a giddy feeling, and 
both eyes much turned inwards and made to squint 
with a peculiar tremour of the eyes, as if suffering 
from some internal affection of the brain. The boy 
for his age was well developed, and born of strong, 
healthy parents, but he had of late showed every symp- 
tom of falling into a bad state of health with great 
restlessness, marked squinting of both eyes, and which 
twitched most severely. I at once diagnosed the case 
as one a is:ng from the poisonous or injurious efiect 
of the excossive use of strong tea drinking — a too com- 
mon habit, I regret to say, amongst families residing 
in the interior. I told the parents, what I thought of 
the case, and the cause from which the illness I be- 
lieved proceeded. I told the parents, too, that I could 
do nothing in the matter nn'ess the mjurious and per- 
nicious habit of strong tea drinking was at once 
discontinued and abandoned, otherwise the boy sooner 
or later must succumb to serioua illuetB, nervous 
prostration, or softening of the brain — in other words, 
aneemia or blood-polsouing,* the result of strong t^a 
drinking. The parents at once acquiesced in my re- 
marks, and made a pledge that my instructions should 
be strictly carried out, and that the tea-drinking 
regime for the future should be entirely discontinued, 
and nothing but plain water, water and sugar, or 
milk and water allowed at meal time. The result was 
that two months after I had been consulted the boy 
had completely regained his former health — the bad 
memory, convulsions, giddiness, and palpitation bad 
disappeared, rest at night undistm-bed and refreshing, 
and the boy being able to return to school. The 
symptoms of poisoning arising from the injurious 
habit of strong tea drinking in one so young was most 
characteristic, and I have no hesitation in saying (after 
long experience of bush habits and life) that a more 
cruel, pitiful, sinful, and pernicious habit of parents 
allowing young children of tender years to partake ot so 
much strong tea at meal time has only once for all to be 
mentioned and condemned, and for ever abandoned by 
all sensible, well-wishing parents who liave any parental 
regard and value the lives and health off thei 
families. The case is by do means an isolated or ox- 
* A " confusion of epitaphs," with a vengeance 1— 
