THIt TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, I892. 
its coating of dried arid decomposed mucilage, and 
in some cases with an adjunct of red earth or red 
ochre, cannot be a wholesome article of food, and I 
■ believe' large manufacturers have to remove that shell 
-before manufacturing chocolate. The loss of weight 
■'to- be met with in washed cacao is also therefore to 
betaken into account by the manufacturer, plus the 
cost and labour of removing these impurities. 
2nd — Artificial drying has to be resorted to sooner 
or -later, and already I may say that Mr. ('. de 
Verteuil has successfully initiated such a ineans of 
drying cacao in bad weather. 
It is evident that .the beans when washed will not 
only dry quicker and save fuel but also they will 
not require to be hand-rubbed and danced and thus 
-Save labour. 
"Why then will manufacturers not pay higher for 
- washed cacao ?— I suppose the natural tendency of 
'•^manufacturers to keep down the price of the raw 
■product is responsible for that. But time would 
soon convince them that it would be to ' their ad- 
. vantage to buy a clean article and the public also 
would prefer to purchase chocolate manufactured 
-'iddouhiedhi from a clean and pure article. 
Why then cease to prepare my cacao Ceylon 
fashion ? — I am but an individual and can ill-afford 
to lose money for any length of time ; but a com- 
pany, with very little capital, which would start a 
centi-al factory in Port- of- Spain, for instance, where 
-abundance of water can be had, where by rail they 
could receive the raw product from small and large 
proprietors, where also they could put up cheap arti- 
ficial drying houses, would be the right thing to put 
the washed cacao on the markets of the v/orld and 
iio have it in thne appreciated as it should be. 
Not only such a. company would make money but 
'■'small proprietors and some large ones, I venture to 
predict, would have a ready sale for their product 
especially in bad weather, and the name of Trinidad 
cacao would again stand foremost in the markets of the 
■world.— I beg to remain; Dear Sir, Yours very truly, 
Eugene Lange, Jr. 
— Trinidad Agncultural Record. 
The fASTOR Oil Plant.— No sort of bird, bea^t 
or creeping thing will, saysan American paper, touch 
a castor oil plant. It seems to bo a rank poison to 
all the animal world. Ev. n a goat will starve before 
biting ofi a leaf, and eniff at it and turn up his upper 
lip as though it had the most drtestable odour on 
the face of the earth. Army worms and locusts will 
paES by it, though they may eat every other 
green thing in BigSit, and there ia no surer way 
to drive moles from a liwn than to plant a few 
castor beaoB here and there. Even the tobaoco 
worm will refuse to feed on its leaves. Tliere is 
hardly another instance in natural history of a 
plant being so universally detestf^d by the animal 
wor'd. And yet wo know the Eria silkworm of 
Assam feeds freely ar.d thrives well on the leaves 
of this plant,— IniZian Agriculturist. [Castor oil 
plants grown on a large soak in Ot^ylon ps a 
eupposeU protective of Liberiao coffee, it we re- 
member ar.ght, had their leaves all eaten off by 
an insect. 1 here is actually an insect which 
does not revolt even at tobaoco I — Ed. T. A.] 
A CoRBESPONDENT points attention to what toa will 
do at Darjeeling, or rather to what it Jias done 
an I instances the Dooteriah Tea Estate, which wa^i 
Bold by public auction during the orisia of 1S6G-67 
for R20,000, and is now worth IS kkha or more. 
It was sold in the usual manner by Mackenzie, 
L)all and Co., and knocked down to Colonel A. 
I'yers, of the ?*1adras Fusiliers, who was j incd as 
a half Blmro by the late Ur. ,J. P. Brougham, of 
Gnlcultn. For more thun 20 ycarti past the prnperly 
lias yielded a princely income to bo h par'ners; 
Hnd Hinoe Dr. Brougham's death Colonel Fyers 
beioK dosirouH of acquiriuf^ tho other halt-Bhare 
is undpstood to have made the doctor's heirs botia- 
flde cash offer of nine lafcbs of rupees for it, which, 
has l.een refused ! Suirly, if this is not quite as 
pood as a gold mine, it must be pretty nearly so. 
And there are other properties in the ceigbbour, 
hood which changed hands to similarly low figures 
during the snme crisis which are known to have 
done and to be doing almost as well as the Moonda 
Koteo Garden for instance, which along with more 
hnlf a-dozen others was taken over by the Land 
Mortgage Bank for some 1150,000 after the original 
owners had spent about 3^ lakhs upon it. It is 
a pity it id £0 difficult for the public to ascertain 
reliab'e particulars as to the working of the Darjeel- 
fing tea gardens. There used to be an Indian Tea 
Gazette, in which one would naturally expect to 
and information of this sort, but I understand it 
is now defunct. — Indian Agriculturint. 
The sedimentary deposit taken out of ponds is 
largely eoinposed of dead leaves. This material 
forms a very useful dressing if spread alone over 
a bare or thin part of a field, but , it . would be 
more desirable to have it mixed with lime befere 
application. The lime hastens the decomposition 
of the organic matter in tho ieavs and other 
dihris of vegetable forme, and materially adds to 
the usetulni Bs of the dressing. The stuff taken 
from tho pond may also be profitably used in 
covering dung heaps, as it -will serve not only to 
waterproof (ho dung heap, but also to absorb . any 
ammonia that might otherwise efcepe from the 
decompoeing dung — Indian Ag iculturist. [A hint 
this for utilizing the tffensive but fertile dredg- 
ings from the Colombo Lake. — Ed T. A.] 
Geyl^n Tea in London. —Messrs. Gow, Wilson 
& Stir.ton write to us by this mail: — 
'■The market f^r Oeylon tea as you will -see has 
somewhat advanced from the lowest poiot, and as 
compO'it on is gener*! and a good all round demand 
prevails, the prospects are Bomewhat more eneonraging 
than they waie two or three weeks back. It must 
not however be fo -gotten that large quaatities of tea 
will shorHy be arriving from the I^laud, and ihcBC 
if forced on the market too quickly, may somewha 
overtax it, Blthongh we sincerely hope that this wil 
not prove to be the case, as there is generally a pon- 
sirferable business transscted in the first few montba 
of the year. With kind leg'srJs, and winhing you the 
compliments of tbo teasoo ; aod wishing Ceylon Tea 
PI inters generally a Happy and Prosperous New Year 
with better prices ihau we have recer.tly seen." 
The Commercial Value or Egyptian Pet- 
roleum. — ^We have heard a -good deal from time to 
time about Egyptian petroleum, and of the possibi- 
lity of the mineral oil which is found at Genisah on 
the shores of the Red Sea, becoming an important 
factor in the oil trade of the future. That being 
so, it will be interesting to learn something concer- 
ning the charaicter of this oil. The illum'nating 
power was tested in Elster's photometer ; the burning 
oil gave a light of 9'8 standard candles (German). 
The weight of oil burnt per hour was 31 grams. 
When exposed to the air the oil rapidly developed 
an 'unpleasant odour. Messrs. Kast and'Kunkler 'arc 
of opinion that Egyptian petroleum is not suitable 
for the muuufacture of illuminating oils, but is an 
excellent material for the preparation of lubricatins 
oils. — Chemical Trade Jminial. 
New Adultehants.— M. Callardot announces his 
discovery of two more new adulterants of saffron, 
viz. fine shreds of onions, dried and coloured artifi- 
cially, and also the powder of "sweet cayenne" or 
paprika, made adherent to the style by some aggluti- 
nating agent, which he believes to be honey. This 
second adulterant he finds present in as high a 
proportion as 00 or 70 per cent, or moie.—Chendcal 
Trade Journal. 
