140 the tropical AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1890. 
I am awaiting further information from Calcutta, 
which I shall be glad to send you when received. — 
Yours truly, B. B. DAVIS. 
[We shall be glad to hear further. — Ed. T. ^.] 
THE BEGINNINGS OP TEA IN CEYLON. 
Central Province, June 26th. 
Dear Sir, — In a late leading article reviewing 
the names of earlier shippers of tea you have 
entirely omited the names of Messrs. Saunders, 
Mercers and Soovells. Yet Blackwater and Adam’s 
Peak should not be forgotten. Blackwater tea is older 
than most Ambagamuwa tea. Blackwater, Strathellie 
and Galboda are about contemporaneous, with 
a call in favor of Blackwater, I think. 
Adam’s Peak averaged a fraction over Is 5d all 
round — and all tea shipped but red leaf — in 1883. 
A portion of Mariawatte was planted from 
Blackwater seed. Nona of the gentlemen, proprietors, 
or superintendents, connected with the estates I 
have mentioned are, as far as I know, expecting 
testimonials from the public. Nor does Mr. Arm- 
strong. Do not Mr. Jas. Taylor’s proprietors re- 
ward him as he deserves ? If not, why not ? — 
Yours truly, M. D. 
[We are obliged to “M. D." for his corrections 
— which have just come in time for the last 
sheets of the book — but not for his snarl about the 
Looie Condura testimonial. Does he mean to place 
any of the names he mentions on the same 
fooling as the pioneer of the “ Sixties ” and 
“ Seventies ” in cinchona as well as tea ? — Ed. T, A.] 
TEA PAECHMENT V. TEA LEAD. 
Sir,— Can tea planters any longer afford to give 
away expensive boxes and lead linings? We sell 
tea, not wood and lead, and it is quite time a 
fixed charge was made for packages, at least as 
much as the dealers can sell them for. What 
power is there in the trade to enforce this customer ? 
If no other power, let the growers themselves 
ma be the necessary stand. Again, why continue 
to s e exp ensive lead for lining our chests, when 
fareh eaper and equally efficient substitutes are 
avilable ? 
In the face of the profits and commsisions that 
are made on lead by importers and agents, the 
planter has much to contend against in his efforts 
to make this change, or changes of any kind, but 
surely as a body, moving as one man, much could 
be effected. I have seen a returned lining of parch- 
ment in which the tea went home and kept per- 
fectly sound and sweet. Where then is the ob- 
struction to its general adoption seeing that the 
cost is about one-half ?— Yours faithfully, 
TEA PLANTER, 
TEA PACKED WITH PREPARED PAPER 
IN PLACE OF TEA LEAD. 
London, June 27th. 
Dear Sir, — I have pleasure to inform you that 
the brtak of Elkadua tea sent home in the prepared 
tea paper has met with every success. 
Tfje break, as I think I mentioned to you when 
in Ceylon, was divided in two .— a being packed in 
paper, the other in the ordinary load. The result 
of sale was precisely similar, each break fetch- 
ing exactly the same figure viz. 10.^d (pekoe). 
The trade has made no objection whatever to 
the paper, and as it will cost about 40 per cent less 
than the lead, there does not appear to be much 
doubt as to its uUimate success. 
I have recently had an application for samples 
from the Kangra Valley Planters’ Association along 
with other Indian concerns. 
I have today written the Chairman of your 
Planters’ Association and sent him further samples 
at his request. 
I propose substituting this paper entirely for 
tea lead on the Elkadua estate, where we have close 
1,000 acres of tea, and where the saving will of course 
be very considerable. — Yours truly, 
J. MAITLAND-KIRWAN. 
A QUESTION FOE ROSE CULTIVATORS. 
Kandy, July Ist. 
Dear Sir, — I shall be glad if you can tell me if 
it were ever known before that the rose could be 
propagated from the leaf. I have tried this mode 
of cultivation and have found it eminently successful 
indeed leaves seem to strike more surely than slips. — 
Yours faithfully, J. DUNBAR JONKLAAS.. 
IGUANA SKIN FOR SHOE LEATHER IN 
CEYLON : WHAT ABOUT OUR CROCODILES ? 
Jaffna, July 2nd. 
Dear Sir, — Perhaps you are not aware that the skin 
of the iguana is made into shoes, though not exten- 
sively, in Jaffna. I saw a pair of child’s shoes made 
of its leather, and was struck with its novelty and the 
ingenuity of the local shoemakers, who, in Jaffna, 
are invariably Moormen. It is evident from this 
that one use of it at least is known to the natives 
of this province, and that they cannot be quite 
strangers to the mode of dressing the skin, 
if such nice soft shoes as those I saw could be made 
out of the local preparation. I trust your remarks 
will commend this industry to the authorities, 
and this poverty-stricken, though industrious, people 
will have another means of earning a subsistence 
when such means are not many and where nature 
has been niggardly in bestowing her benefits. — Yours 
truly, A STRANGER. 
MINERALS IN CEYLON ; BERUWALA. 
Anuradhapura, July 12th. 
Dear Sir, — Your editorial note in the Observer 
of the 8th instant headed “ Mineralogical ” calls 
to my mind certain passages on the same head 
occurring in the works of two Ceylon authors 
which do not ever appearjto have been sufficiently 
regarded, if at all.* I enclose them herewith, as 
they may be of some interest, even if of no value. 
I also enclose a short notice of a historical event 
which happened at Barbareen, Barbaryn or Beru- 
wala, which place is briefly referred to in your issue 
of the 10th instant. — Yours truly, in haste. C. 
Bennett’s Ceylon, published 1843.— Extract (chap, xli, 
p. 331): — “ The late Mr. Reckerman, Fiscal of Colombo, 
informed me that coal had been discovered in the 
island by the Dutch; but from there being such an 
abundance of wood, and charcoal the only fuel used 
by the native cooks, no notice whatever was taken of 
the discovery that mineral is now become an object 
of such great and general importance, as to be worthy 
of the most particular research, for the purpose of 
supplying fuel to steam -vessels, touching at Ceylon, 
on their voyages to and from Madras, Bengal, and the 
Red Sea, and would be one of the greatest acquiei- 
tions to the coLiuy that discovery has ever produced.” 
[For the argument that neither ordinary coal nor 
anthracite exist in Ceylon, see monograph on plum- 
bago in transactions of local Asiatic Society. — E d. T. A-1 
* They have often been carefully examined and dis- 
posed of. See our notes to passages quoted. — E d. T.A. 
