Twr Tl?OP)GAU A0RICULTURI8T. 
[August i, tsgo. 
14s 
Seed Pearls in Borneo, — Prom an official 
report we quote as followo: — “The Seed-pearl fisheries 
at Tetahuan an-1 Linskaho are in a more than 
flourishing condition, the Bajows tell me there is no 
fear of the present crop being worked out under 
two vears. good worker can make a dollar a >1ay. 
“ Kew Bulletin.” — The June number, now before 
us, contains an article on compressed or tablet 
tea, dealing with the methods of its manufacture 
at Hankow, and at Chungking in Thibet. Thibet 
trees of the Straits Settlements form the subject 
of another paper. It contains much useful infor- 
mation on a great number of different species, 
giving the weight of a certain number of cubic 
inches, and of a cubic foot of each and naMve 
names of the trees. Cotton in West Africa forms 
the subject of another paper.— -ffardewers’ Chronicle, 
June 14th. 
Varieties oe Tea. — In a lecture on Tea 
before the Society of Arts, Mr. Bichard Bannister 
has the following:— 
The youngest leaves made the best teas, and starting 
from the end of the shoot, and numbering the leaves 
as they came from a to f, the following varieties would 
be obtained : — a, flowery pekoe; b, orange pekoe; c, 
pekoe (“ poco” means “ white hair” or down of tender 
leaves) ; d, first souchong ; e, second souchong (“sou- 
chong” means “ small plant” ) ; /, Congou (means 
“labnn>-.” eEnressing the care required in preparation); 
a'b c. Mixed Pekoe \ ahc d e, mixed pekoe, souchong. 
Hvson means “ before rain,” or “ flourishiug spring;” 
Kyson skins, refuse of tea (native term “ tea skins”), 
coarser refuse f native term “tea bones.”) 
CoEFEE ON THE BeLLIGHERRV BuNGAN HiLLS. — 
The high price realized for coffee last year (average 
of 103 to 108 shillings per ewt.) and the firmness of 
the market for the last two or three years, have 
induced speoulators to invest more largely in coffee 
lands. Instead of buying up coffee estates of some 
standing, it is better to open out new coffee in new 
localities. “Bug,” “leaf disease,” and other pests 
make the upkeep of old properties more expensive 
than opening out fresh lands. We hear there are 
several applications for lands on the BslUgherry 
Eungan Hills, Mysore Province, for coffee cultivation. 
At present a solitary planter — Mr. Morris — has 
opened out some 200 acres on these hills, but the 
search for fresh lands has induced several others to 
apply for blocks in this locality. We hear that Mr. 
Sanderson of Keddah fame purnoses opening out 
coffee psf'ates here. — Banqalore Spectator. 
Rubrer Culture in Colombia. — A report by 
Mr. WheePr, on the agriculture ‘ of Colombia, 
forwarded as a Consular report, by our Minis- 
ter, and of the country, states— as we learn from 
a home journal— that various sorts of trees 
producing canutchoue, mostly castilloas, are indi- 
genous to Colombia, but only one sort is cultivated, 
and that, at present, to a very small extent. This 
is a hitherto undeseribed species of the family of 
the Euphorbiacece. allied to the Ceard and the 
lleveaol Brazil, hut itgrows at greater elevation than 
any of the Brazilian species. In Chaparral there is 
a plantation of 70,000 trees, at 0,500 feet, which 
are doing well. They are ready for tapping in 
six years from the time of planting. This report 
lends additional interest to a communication which 
a M. P. Durand has recently made to the Paris 
Commercial Geography Society, in which he states 
that in April last he purchased 10, OHO hectares 
(21,711 acres) of land at Monteria (Kio Simi), 
Colombia, which is “ incomparable ” fok cacao and 
rubber tree growing. He has since then planted a 
portion of the property with cuttings from the 
rubber trees in his neighbourhood, and hopes to 
Jiand over to his Koci^tc in three years 100,000 
young rubber treee which may he tapped from the 
eixth year. 
A Bury Tea Factory in Uva.— It is not so long 
ago that some people thought that Uva would not be 
suitable for tea cultivation, but the experience of the 
last few yeais seems to show that as a tea-producing 
district it will be secoud to none. Nothing, for 
instance, can be finer than the tea on Glen Alpin 
estate, where as much as 400 and 500 lb. per acre is 
obtained off 4-year old tea, whilst the factory on that 
estate is turning out large quantities of tea. Up to date 
over 230,000 lb. of made tea has been turned out of it 
during the year, and by the 31st of this month, when 
the financial year closes, the total will have increased 
to 260,000 lb., of which a small proportion is bought 
leaf. We hear that a wire tramway 2J miles long is 
about to be constructed from Badulla town to the 
estate, for the purpose of conveying manure from the 
town depot, where it is collected, to a point high up 
the estate, where it can be easily distributed. With a 
fine crop of coffee, with tea doing so splendidly, and 
with magnificent facilities for manuring, Glen Alpin 
ought to be a most valuable property for the share- 
holders of the Company. 
“Indian Corn” is suggested by His Ex- 
cellency the Governor as a product that ought to be 
freely cultivated iu Ceylon, in his remarks to the 
people of Matale. This is a very natural thought 
to an Administrator who has seen how largely Indian 
corn forms the food of the people in the West 
Indies as it does in Brazil and other American 
States. And even in Ceylon, Sir Arthur Havelock 
will learn that maize or Indian corn is grown to 
a limited extent ; and as we have repeated time 
after time in our “ Agricultural Review ” a great deal 
more should be done with it here in suitable 
localities. It requires however a moist good soil, 
although it has the widest range of all cereals. 
Bertolaooi so far back as 1816 reported that ‘‘Turkish 
corn ” or maize bad been proved to succeed well in 
Ceylon : it was then grown freely in the Matara 
and Batticaloa districts and exported to other parts 
of the island. He hoped to see culture extend to 
the supersession of dry grain. There can be no 
doubt that much might be done in Ceylon to in- 
crease the production of maize, more parti- 
cularly if better means of communication were 
established from Polgahawela and Dambulla, north- 
wards and eastwards. 
Mineealogical. — Mr. George Armifcage, to 
whom we referred the very pretty specimen of 
silver-like iron pyrites recently sent to us, in return- 
ing it states : — 
“The bright faces are evidently the facets of the 
natural ; crystal and judging from the angles, the 
crystal was I consider forming into a combination of 
the cube and tetrahedron, such ns you will see figured 
iu any good book on mineralogy.” 
A correspondent wrote to us : — 
“ No mention is made of arsenic in ‘ Gold, Gems, and 
Pearls.’ 1 have been told that it exists in large quanti- 
ties in parts of the island, and should be glad to know 
something about it as a marketable article.* 
On this head Mr. Armitage writes : — 
There is doubtless lots of arsenical pyrites in the 
island though 1 have not come across it. The ordinary 
pyrites does not contain arsenic. Arsr nopyrito, mis- 
pickel, aud arsenical pj rites which are differmt names 
for the same mineral, has a silver-wbite cidour inclining 
to steel gray and is composed of arsenic, sulphur and 
iron with at times part of the iron replaced by cobalt. 
There are a lot of other minerals, such as sencopyrite, 
Bolingite, orpimeut, roaigar, &c., containing arsenic. 
I shall bo glail to show anyone the specimen I have of 
arsenopvrites. It taiuisbes outside, but shows the 
silver-white colour ouafre.sh fracture. Native arsenic 
is formed in veins in the crystalline rocks and often 
with ores of realgar, antimony, &c. 
“ He your rema. ks about steatite in a recent Observer, 
it is I believe common in Ceylon. You sent me speci- 
mens to name on two occasions.” 
It seems doubtful if arsenic exists in a marketable 
form in Oeylon. 
