August i, 1890.] 
THE TROPSGAL AQRIOULTURIST, 
European enterprise instead of simply existing to take 
advantage of it, Blassrs. Harrison and Leake ought 
to get a free grant of a block of land for cinchona and 
tea, or be ofiered it.*-Yonrs very truly, 
James Tatloe. 

Aostkalian PBonncE foe Ceylon.— We oan testify 
that the cheese, bacon and butter consigned to 
Messrs. Auwardt & Co., as advertised, from the 
farfamed Illawara district of New South Wales is 
specially deserving of attention here. Each article 
seems good in its degree— good value for the price 
charged — and planters especially will favourably 
bear in mind that the proceeds of the sale of this 
produce is to be re-invested in Ceylon tea for the 
benefit of the Illawara farmers and other residents. 
Brazil Coffee. — The coSee crop now in course 
of shipment from Santos to the markets of Europe 
and the United States is estimated to reach 
2,000,000 bags (132 lb. each) by June 30th, 1890, 
the end of the crop year. This is a falling short of 
over 1,000,000 bags on the production of last year, 
due to the fact that a small bearing generally 
succeeds a heavy one, the previous harvest of 1888- 
89 having been the largest on record. Although 
the present crop is a small one, its monetary value 
is in excess of the last, in consequence of the higher 
prices obtained. — H, and C, Mail, 
The Sources of Beautiful Colours. — The American 
Druggist has formulated a list of the choicest colours 
used in the arts, as follows ; — The cochineal insects 
furnish a great many of the very fine colours. Among 
them are the gorgeous carmine, the crimson, scarlet 
carmine and purple lakes. The cuttle-fish gives 
the sepia. It is the inky fluid -which the fish dis- 
charges in order to render the water opaque when 
attacked. Indian yellow comes from the camel. Ivory 
chips produce the ivory black and bonehiack. The 
exquisite Prussian blue is made by tusing horses’ 
hoofs and other refuse animal matter with impure 
potassium carbonate. This colour was discovered 
accidentally. Various lakes are derived from roots, 
barks, and gums. Blue black comes Irom the charcoal 
of the vine stalk. Lamp black is soot from certain 
resinous substances. Turkey red is from the madder 
plant, which grows in Hiiulostan. The yellow sap of 
a tree of 8iam produces gamboge ; the natives catch the 
sap in cocoanut shells. Baw sienna is the natural earth 
from the neighbourhood of Sienna, Italy. Raw umber 
is also an earth found near Umbria and burnt. Indian 
ink is made from burnt camphor. The Chinese are 
the only manufacturers of this ink, and they will not 
reveal the secret of its manufacture. Mastic is made 
from the gum of the mastic tree, which grows in the 
Grecian Archipelago. Bister is the soot ot wood ashes. 
Very little real ultramarine is found in the market. It 
is obtained from the precious lapis-lazuli, and commands 
a fabulous price. Chinese white is zinc, scarlet is iodide 
of mercury, and native vermilion is from the quicksilver 
ore called cinnabar. 
And certainly Mr. James Taylor ought to get one 
of the best blocks in the country. Messrs. Harrison and 
Loake deserve credit for their enterprise, and it is 
much to bo regretted that they suffered so greatly 
the usual fate of pioneers. But as regards both tea 
and cinchona the intelligent, energetic and persever- 
ing Superintendent of Loole Condera was the first 
man “ to teach the English how to do it.” Much of 
what Mr. Taylor now communicates reached the 
senior editor long ago and has been tied up with a mass 
of other matter on tea and cinchona to be worked when 
time could be got. But each day brings more than 
its work. One small fact will show how consoieuti- 
Onely oarefnl Mr. Taylor is in his worK. Strict cleanli- 
ness is of much importance in the preparation of tea ; 
and when coolies are seen dressed in specially 
clean clothing, the remark mSide is, Some of Taylor's 
teii ooolies.”'-En. f, A, 
79 
Fine Prices for Cocoa. — Ceylon cocoa is now one 
of the most valuable products sent out of the island, 
and is in great request. Some cocoa from one of Mr. 
J. H. Barber’s estate has just been sold, we hear, 
for E58 per cwt. This is a fine price considering 
the high rate of exchange at present, and should en- 
courage all those who have suitable land for this very 
remunerative product. 
Mineral Rubber.— The Bulletin dii Miisoe Commercial 
gives currency to a report from an American source 
that an American has discovered a means of pro- 
ducing, by distillation from coal, a bituminous subs- 
tance possessing all the qualities of rubber, and which 
may be equally well used in the manufacture of 
submarine cables. The cost of this article is said to 
be much less than that of vegetable caoutchouc. 
Coffee There have lately been frequent calls 
for Mr. W. B. Forsyth’s report on coffee, and as 
the number of the Monthly which contained them 
is exhausted, it is reprinted in this issue with 
Mr. Kinney’s— both of which are valuable to 
those intending to engage in coffee planting. 
Among all the minor industries adapted to our 
climate, there is none which will pay better than 
coffee cultivation. Kona coffee is worth to the 
grower twenty cents a pound, and probably will 
command that price for many years, as it has 
no equal, — Planters' Monthly, (Hawaiian)’ 
Gems from Gas Eefuse — To make precious 
stones from gas-refuse is indeed — says the L. d- C. 
Express — to squeeze out the romance which should 
cling to “ pearls from the ocean and gems from the 
mine.” Mr. Greville Williams, of the Gas Light and 
Coke Company, has made a perfect emerald from the 
refuse of a gas retort. That this was possible has 
been known to science for two generations. But 
although there is nothing new in this ingenious 
play with soienee- despite, too, that the cost of 
making the gem was ten times its highest value— 
the news has caused some alarm among possessors 
of fine emeralds. 
Planiinq in North Boenbo.— At the ordinary 
general shareholders’ meeting of the Labuk Plant- 
ing Company at Hongkong on the 6th instant, 
the report presented was passed after the Chairman 
had said that he could add very little to it, 
except that the latest accounts from the manager 
were very encouraging, and although there must 
be numerous difficulties met with the first year 
he hoped they would vanish as time went on. 
The trouble in starting a plantation was getting 
labour — it was the case with all new estates. He ad- 
mitted that the item of $15,717 in the accounts under 
the head of “ labour ” meant squeezes to coolie 
brokers, but pointed out the impossibility of getting 
coolies without paying for them. He was hopeful 
of getting the money back in the form of labour, 
— Straits Times, May 18th. 
Dendhobidm MaoCarthle. — In copying the 
following paragraph from an American periodical, 
Garden and Forest, we may state that this 
plant was named in honour of Lady MacCarthy 
by the late Dr. Thwaites, who was the first to 
describe it : — 
This magnificent plant is now flowering freely at 
Kew. It IB one of tbe least common in gardens from 
the fact of its being bad to cultivate. It is found only 
in Ceylon, where it is much less plentiful now than it 
was a few years ago, owing, probably, to tbe visitations 
of the Orchid-collector. 'The Kew plants have this 
year made pseudo. bulbs over a yard long, and they bear 
near the top pendulous, three-flowered racemes, each 
flower being four inches across when fully expanded ; 
tbe colour is pale rosy mauve, with a large blotch of 
maroon-purple on the lower part of the lip, and 
streaks of the same color on the front portion. Tbe 
Kew plants are grown in a very hot, moist stove, where 
they are kept saturated at all times save when tbe leaves 
I are falling. It grows all through the winter, the flow- 
ers pushing immediately after the leaves have falleu. 
