October t, iBgt.'] THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTURIST 
23? 
NOTES BY "WANDERER." 
Aug. 5th. 
Weather continaes damp, so the factories are 
BDVthing but buBy in the high districts, or even over 
2 000 ft. Good tea is now beicg; mbde, aui every 
nlanter seems determined next year to have plenty 
of withering room, and facilities where possible, to 
have the moisture taken oflf the leaf in cold showery 
weather. The great desideratum however is to have 
a Bufflcient number of coolies to overtake the rush 
of leaf in the showery weather that follows the dry 
nirntbs of January, February and March- The London 
ri„.« is cabled as having thunderea forth the necee- 
Bitv of "England sitting tight to Egypt.' 1 he tea 
Dlauter must "sit tight to Kamasamy," and our Govern- 
ment must be prepared to give assisted passages to our 
coolies by any route they choose to come to Oeylon. 
HBAI.TB is not very satisfactory among Europeans 
iu3t now Colds so severe as to warrant their being 
called attacks of influenza get hold of the high- 
countryman, and fever, rheumatism &o. worry the 
lowcouutry planter. We do not hear of the influenza 
enidemic among coolies as we did last year, but 
Bome of the half-starved coolies don't get in touch 
with their surroundings in Oeylon, till they have a 
few stomach-aches, and kindred ailments. 
Planting.— The weather could not have been better 
for the new clearing and supplying man, if he had 
got it made to order. A great deal of arrears in 
supplying ha3 been made up. and little additions 
to cultivated area of tea have been completed in the 
older districts. Except on the Uva side of Nuwara Eliya 
and the lowcouutry there basnot been any larye addition 
to the area under tea Ihe Goveroment is quite rifht 
in not patting up more land fit for tea cultivation to 
nublic sale. We hear of long continued drought in Uva 
and Udapussellawa. One wonders how the tea bii'-bes 
will stand these droughts as they get old. Will red 
Boider then get very troublesome, and rust hasten 
decay ? Yottog c flee could stand drought even in 
Dumbara. but as it grew old it succumbed. How wdl 
a thirsty plant like tea stand 3 months' drought ? 
The Oeylon Government Kailw ay is beginnmg to 
be a well abused institutioa. Oh for the days of a 
Kobinson and a S(ron« ! f We h-ar constantly of 
badly working brakes, runaway engines and trollies, 
discontented servants, and engines not in safe condi- 
tion The fact is we want a real admini.stra'or tor 
our Chief Manager, wh ise salary would be suflioient 
to attract a first-class man from borne, to undertake 
the difacult job of railway administration. The salary 
given to the Government Agents of the Norlh-Central 
or Western Piovinces would not be too large tor u 
good adminiatrator. „ , , ,c 
Ce-slon Tea Companies.-How to get 15 p^c oa a 
block capital of opened tea land per acre ot i30 will 
puzzle some of our managers at present prices even 
with present favorable rales of exchange Tea cents 
a lb. is about the profit on an estato yielding 3oO lb 
an acre on the hills or 36 rupers an aore profa'. It 
tea goes down to eighlpenop, the company manager 
will have to fcratch his head all the more 1 However, 
it Cevlon tea is ever to be cheap, now is the lime, lor 
no duubt it is a;etting iiito tonsumvtioii with a 
veugrnrice. It is all rut about tlie .lOn-keopiiig quality 
I f (Je> Ion tea except in the month ot April, May and 
June, "and we will soon ba abl«; to dodge even thts- 
moLth? by iiuprovtmeiits in nith>;rii)K mid firing. 
Tb,\. Machinlsts ake Awful Ohargeus— iue 
oavtthw at B .lac.h.va wfe not in it with thesa wcirlhi s. 
The iii.kcv wl o mi d. d one hole mid broke two 
is no doubt tlu^ m ci st r ol t'.e Ce:.l. ii ir,achini.-t._ I 
belibvo his future •.i,v,,rd wm Le to be; 1 .t .siuu'ing 
ill th« nincf l\Hlro for two tLos, 'hen ecu eyed m 
II teji. leaf Cart to s ;me suitable l-c;ory in the iieigh- 
bouihoudof Nuwara Eliya whi r/ he will bo nllowi-d 
to wither on a cold >larup t-ih for iliice dajs, thou 
to bp rolled in Barber's ro.lt v for half au hcur and 
Jackson's rapid lor nnolher hour. After lh.il l.i; wiL 
have two iniiiuti'9 eiicU in tb» tlirio p^ii'Ut r' II 
breakeis. lie will then le roaslbd iu the firocco tni 
Biowu's liesiooator, and to effect a perttct cure, so 
that he may have bowels of compassion on his bene- 
factor, the tea planter, he will then be put iu Jack- 
son's cutter and sorted in Walker & Greig's sifter. 
He will then be sent to Colombo to be sold by auction 
and there have to listen to the feeble jokes of the tea 
buyers of our maritime capital. I believe this last 
process will be the most painful of any ot the others 
described previously. 
THE " HEATHEN CHINEE " EIGGINCi 
THE CHINA TEA MARKET. 
The Fooohow correspondent of the Boivilong Tele^ 
graph, v^riting on the 8th, tells the following tale of 
the alarm there!— We just found out today that much 
of the excitement was due to shrewd work on the 
part of some tea speculators. The crop this season 
opened fairly well and large shipmenta were made to 
London. Here on account of competition from Amoy, 
India and Ceylon, the market was very flat and every 
sale of Foochow entailed heavy loss, running from 20 
to 5,5 per cent and averaging 40 per cent on the lot. 
This meant ruin to many hongs here and a worse 
financial condition than has ever prevailed in the 
history of the place. Some of the people who are 
heavily interested resorted to an old Wall Street ruse 
and cabled home that an uprising had begun, rioting 
was imminent and all the tea-hongs were to be burned 
to the ground. The Times, Telegra2)h, Standard and 
the minor dailies swallowed the bait and published the 
news as well as e itorial paragraphs upon the unexpected 
trouble. As such a riot as described involved the de- 
struction of the present crop and the cessation of 
shipments for the re&t of the year, the London mar- 
ket revived and prices rose quite handsomely, Tliose 
who di spatched the telegrams have cleared a goid 
profit and probably recouped their losses. No harm 
has been done to anybody, but there will undoubtedly 
be an elephantine roaring and growling when the 
editors at home discover how they have been imposed 
upou. As a matter of fact, the Foochow natives are, 
end have always been docile and peaceable. The 
only ugly elements are 1,,'jOO discharged Honaii soldiers, 
who are penniless and ready to rob and pilfer at every . 
opportunity. On the other himd there are over 8,000 
troops here well-disciplined and armed who could sup- 
press any riot in a half hour. The authorities at Peking 
are alarmed at the indemnilies already demanded from 
the Yangtze district and have advised the generals 
here by telegraph and proclamation to prevent the 
slightest disorder and to behead any one guilty of 
seditious conduct or even iLflammalory language. It 
is safe to lay .'iO to 1 that there will be no serious 
trouble this season at least.— A^.-C llerald, Aug. 21st 
COLONIAL [NATAL] TIMBER FOR 
RAILWAY PURPOSES. 
Commission Appointed. 
Some intereating papers relative to the testing of 
the value ns tin;ber of certain exotics grown in the 
olony.Buch ae ihe tucnljptus, wattle, &c. The 
QUESTION FIE8T AliOBE 
through the Miiriizhnrg Botanic Society drawing the 
Government attention lo the following points :— 
1. To the oxtrenie 1 nporiance of tteiiug the value as 
timber of the exotic, uuch as the euoalj plus, wattle, 
&c., so frei ly giowu iu the colony. 
2. To the ci oumsla icea that there is, at the present 
momtnt, a v^ry largo quantity ol such exoticsof such au 
age ass to be ready f. r lelliog. 
3. To thi (act that, owing to the iibsei;ce of any such 
test, there is a prejudice on the part of the users of 
limber againbt our exotics ; and 
4. That the recent arrival of the C'-nser v.itor of 
Forests, appears to suggei.t the present as a suitable 
time for taking up this que&tion. 
