July I, 1890.] 
Suppkmcnt to the ^‘Tropical Agykuitunst.’’^ 
71 
In my o]nninn, as I hare already reported, the 
couiury kapok is the best suited for the country. 
It will grow well almost anywhere, and if the 
cotton when picked is well paid for, the industry 
will soon extend. 
It would, I think, be good policy for the pro- 
moters of the Spinning and Wearing Company to 
pay three or four times the value of cotton at 
first, in order to stimulate its cultivation. Fist 
attempts to grow a commodity are always the 
most expensive. When the cultivation is well 
established, the cost of production will be reduced, 
and the ordinary laws of supply and demand will 
soon operate. 
If the Government wish to assist the cultiva- 
tion of this or of any other variety of cotton, a 
fairly large grant should l.ie made to introduce it 
thoroughly and in earnest into some such districts 
as the Bintemia or the Koloima and Meda Ivorales 
in Sabaragamuwa, but such attempts as have 
hitherto been made will, in my humble opinion, 
always fail, and do more to check than extend the 
cultivation of a product which, I believe, if once 
established would be of special benefit to the 
Island. 
This complaint of bad seed comes from most 
parts of the Island, and it is a pity some trials 
were not previously made to test the value of the 
seed before distributing it to the villagers, who 
having once formed a bad o]hnion, will not easily 
be made to change it. Now that reports come 
from Germany that a sugar fifteen times sweeter 
than that from the cane, and twenty times sweeter 
than that from l)eet, can be extracted from cotton 
seed, there is all the more reason to encourage the 
e.xtention of cottoii-cultivation. 
The visit of Mr. Lipfon to Ceylon will be remem- 
bered for the great ]iush that will be giv'en to the 
trade in Ceylon tea. “ The great tea-man” as he 
is now called has invested many thousands of 
pounds in t'^a-esfates in the Island, the produce 
of which will be almost literally sown 
broadcast over a large fraction of the earth’s sur- 
face. All who have lived any time in Edinboro’ 
or Glasgow will be familiar with “ Lij^ton’s,” where 
one got the best value for his money, and where 
business was carried on on the strictest principles. 
Saturday night at Lipton’s used to be a great day 
for the poorer classes who flocked in crowds to 
avail themselves of the opportunity to get their 
groceries at reduced prices : and Lipton’s monster 
cheese will not be forgotten in a hurry by the 
many wlio congregated at his window's in North 
Bridge Street to see, and read the particulars of 
the manufacture of, the cheese wirich Her Majesty 
w'as obliged to gracefully decline. 
It is more than surprising that no one lias started 
the idea of establishing dyeing and cleaning works 
ill Ceylon, considering the e.xtent to w'hich such a 
business is certain to l)c ])atronised. What a 
saving in clothes there would he ! If cleaning and 
re-dyeing of clothes be considered necessary in the 
West, how much greater is the need for such 
operations in the East, wiiere the dust and heat do 
so much to soil dross material and cause it to fade. 
Dark clothes which have become dusty and faded, 
in half the time they do in a less trying cli- 
mate, to a degree beyond remedy by the ordinary 
household methods, if sent to such an establish- 
ment as Puller’s and subjected to certain chemical 
processes, will return with the cleanliness, fresh- 
ness and original gloss of a new article. What an 
advantage this would be to those whose means 
are limited ! It is high time that cleaning, dyeing, 
and even bleaching works were established in 
a growing city like Colombo. 
The cultivation of new' v'arieties of Potatoes has 
been attempted in Nuw'ara Eliya. In the case of 
Aberdeen Eidneys, with 56 ll>s. of seed a crop of 5 1 0 
lbs. w'as got. Mr. Lo Mesurier, Government Agent, 
had a good return with Tasmanian seed, and is of 
opinion that potatoes can be grow'n to x^erfection in 
Nuw'ara Eliya. The question suggests itself as to 
wdio first attemxvted the growth of xiotatoes in 
Ceylon. We remember reading in a local news- 
X>ax)er some years ago that Mr. Lorenz, the father 
of Mr. Advocate C. A. Lorenz, was the first to ex- 
X>eriment in potato growing when in Matara. It 
would be interesting to know the details of these 
ex]veriments, 

GENERAL ITEMS. 
Dr. James Clarke, m. a., ph. d., lately attached 
to the British Museum, has been apipointed Professor 
of Natural History in the Dowmton College of 
Agriculture. Downton bids fair to be the leading 
College of Agriculture in England, to judge from 
the successes its students are gaining at the public 
compjetitiv'e examinations in Agricultural Science. 
The coptyright of the well-kuow'ii series of 
“ Hand-booksof the Farm” wdiich are acknowdedged 
to be the most valuable collection of text-books on 
the various branches of Agriculture, brought out 
under the sup)erintendence of the late J ohn Chal- 
mers Morton, has been pmrehased by Messrs. 
Vinton & Co., the Agricultiu'al and Spvorting pub- 
lishers of New Bridge Street, London. 
The appointment of Agricultural Instructors is 
not peculiar to Ceylon. A Government Commis- 
sion instituted to inquire into the condition of 
Agriculture in the Netherlands, and to suggest the 
best means of improving it, advise the appoint- 
ment of “ special government officials to be called 
Agricultural 1 nstr uctors. ” 
The number of ap^pvlications for pirotectiou of 
Agricultural inv'entions in Great Britain amounted 
for the year 1889 to 21,000. 
Professor Brown writing of Influenza in horses, 
says that good nursing, the administration of small 
doses of salines — as sulphate of magnesia — occa- 
sional emi)loyment of stimulating liniments to the 
throat and chest, and, in the convalescent stage, 
liberal rations, with tonics, constitute the favou- 
rite and successful system of treatment of in- 
fluenza. Bleeding, purging and blistering, he says, 
which are the sheet anchors of the medicine man of 
the old school, are means which, in this disease, 
only tend to increase the pvrostration, and defeat 
the restorative efforts of Nature. 
The latest report on the prospects of the Indian 
wheat crop for the season 1889-90, states that the 
failure of the w'inter rains has told severely on 
