270 
the TRDPIOAL agriculturist. [October t, 1890. 
Cacao in Teinidad.— Mr. de Lemos hag, while away, 
according to a contemporary. “ travelled about a good 
deal, going, as far west as South America to see a 
brother who nrovided him with abundance of sport. 
He also visited Trinidad and speaks in terms in 
high praise of the magnifioence of the cacao walks 
there, where cacao trees 100 years old, still bearing 
heavily and untouched by any disease, are to be seen ! 
Mr. de Lemos also visited the sugar factories in that 
island and was greatly pleased and interested with 
all he saw.” 
AIe. Haeeington’s IncineeATOE. — Mr. Harring- 
ton writes that during the ten days ending 30th June, 
19,000 cubic feet (equivalent to 475 tons of refuse 
was burnt in his incinerator and that the con- 
sumption of coal during the ten days was 59 
maunds— a trifle over 2 tons. During the three 
months of July, August and September, the in- 
cinerator is to be under official trial; and. to 
conform to the contract specification, it must burn 
not less than 2.880 cubic feot (equivalent to 72 
tons! of refuse daily. Mr. Harrington writes that 
be intends to conform to his specification, and 
that he hopes not to use any coal whatever. 
The incinerator is now in full operation . — Indian 
Engineer, July, 5th. 
Tea and Coffee Cultivation in Native States. — 
During the year 1889, there were 27 coffee plantations 
in the Native State of Travancore and 18 in that of 
Cochin. The area of the former was 3,917 acres 
and of the latter 8.452 acres. The approximate yield 
in Travancore, exclusive of six plantations with an 
area of 332 acres in Manachel for which particulars 
have not been furnished, was ,376,148 lb. That in 
Cochin was .533.828 lb. The average yield per acre of 
poature plapts was highest in the Shencotta Taluq (571) 
of Travancore and the lowest (1.52) in the Ohenga- 
nacherry Talnk of the same State. The cost of cul- 
tivation per acre rapued between R50 and RIOO. The 
coffee cultivated in Shencotta was of the Liberian 
variety. As regards tea there were 57 plantations in 
Travancore and two in Cochin, all under black tea, 
with an average of 16.597 in the former, and 35| in the 
latter State. The approximate yield in Travancore, 
excluding seven plantations measuring 300 acres, was 
571,756 lb. and in Cochin 2,0481b. The highest y ield 
was in Pathanapuram in Travancore, where 788 lb. per 
acre was obtained, and the lowest 64 lb. per acre in 
Cochin. The cost of cultivation per acre ranged from 
P26 to R80, and that of manufacturing tea between 
Ig and 6i annas per lb . — Madras limes, July 19th. 
Fastidious Colonisers. — Chinamen are, says a 
contemporary, as tenacious as they seem to be 
capricious in their preference for certain towns. 
They are strongly attached to San Francisco, and 
in a less degree to Rangoon and Calcutta. On the 
other hand, they avoid Madras and every other 
point on the east coast of India, and are not to be 
induced to take up their abode in the Nicobars Islands, 
a fact which Government discovered as the result of 
a recent experiment. A scheme was formed three or 
four years ago for converting these useless islands 
into a thriving Chinese colony, and fifteen Celestials 
were bribed to leave Penang for one year and start the 
new settlement. They went, but refused to work, 
none of their kith flocked after them ; and when the 
year was up, twelve of the fifteen returned imme- 
diately to Penang. The other three made a good sum 
of money by gardening, but at the end of the second 
year they too packed up their belongings and de- 
parted, for reasons which they kept to themselves. 
Thus the colonising experiment, which cost R3,000, 
ended in smoke. —Pioneer, July 24th. [The eapri- 
•ious preferences of the Celestials are extraordinary. 
While Batavia, Singapore and Penang swarm with 
wearers of the pigtail, the sight of one in Colombo is 
a rare event. — E d. T. A,] 
Sea-air, according to M. Pierre Lesage, has the 
effect of thickening the leaves of plants and trees. 
Moreover, plants grown in salted soil produce 
thicker leaves. There is a notable increase in the 
number and size of the “palisade cells ” in maritime 
vegetation as compared with that grown inland. — 
Globe. 
FlantingNotes from Peermaad.— “Never within the 
memory of the oldest inhabitant,” has there been, at this 
season of the year, suob extraordinarily fine weather 
as that which we are experiencing; in fact, it is diffi- 
cult to realize that we are now well into the middle of 
what we are in the habit of calling the monsoon, but 
which this year, so far as rain is concerned, bids fair 
to be conspicuous by its absence. The monsoon, for 
I suppose we must admit that it has broken, came in 
so gently last month, that it is almost impossible to 
fix the exact date of its advent, and after giving us a 
few fairly wet days, though with constant breaks of 
unusually fine weather, has apparently left ns ! For 
the past 4 or 6 days, not a drop of rain has fallen, 
and instead of the howling winds, thick mists and 
heavy downpours which are customary during June, 
July and August, we are having the most lovely and 
almost cloudless days, cool and pleasant weeks and 
the most perfect moonlight nights. Whether this 
total change in the usual order of meteorological ar- 
rangements is to be attributed to the unusually wet 
weather we experienced during what we call our 
“ hot weather” in March, April or May, or to the 
eclipse, I am not prepared to say. Coffee prospects 
are, I regret to say, net particularly cheering. In 
the early part of February we were favoured with fine 
blossom showers, and great hopes were entertained of 
a more than average crop, but the high winds and 
fearful storms that followed, soon dashed them to 
the ground, and the coming crop will, I fear, turn 
out lamentably short. As, however, planters up here 
have, with a few exceptions, gone in heavily for tea, 
some of the old coffee estates having been entirely, 
and most of them partially, transformed into tlouri.sh- 
ing tea gardens, the effects of a short coffee crop 
will not be so disastrous as it otherwise would 
have been. Of the 5,000 acres under cultivation in 
the district, considerably more than half is under tea 
and it is satisfactory to note that, with the increasing 
yield of leaf and improved manufacture, and the in- 
troduction on some of the largest properties of the 
latest steam machinery, good prices are being main- 
tained both in London and New York to whiou latter 
port some of the largest shipments are made. In 
the last “Wynaad Notes,” reference is made to the 
visit of a Government Specialist in connection with 
the disease that has so seriously affected the cinchona 
— and Mr. Hooper’s* interesting report has lately been 
published. About 20 years ago a large proportion of 
the cinchona planted in the Government Gardens up 
here, suffered in a precisely similar manner to that 
described by your Wynaad correspondents and at the 
suggestion of the British Resident, the services of 
the late Mr. W. G. Mclvor were placed at the dis- 
posal of the Travancore Government. Mr. Mclvor 
came and saw and reported. He was of opinion that 
both the climate and soil of Peermaad were unsuit- 
able to the profitable cultivation of cinchona, and, 
if I remember rightly, advised the Travancore Govern- 
ment to abandon the experiment. In the face of 
such an unfavorable report, it was only natural that 
private indiviiiuals hesitated to embark capital in the 
enterprise, and no one rhought anyhing more about 
cinchona until about 10 years ago when there was 
a great rush and thousands of plants were put ia 
all over the district and are now doing well eniugh, 
no symptoms of canker having appeared amongst 
any of the trees planted on private properties. Last 
season’s cardamon crop was very short, but 
the deficit is expected to be more than made up by 
the coming crop which, I hear, is to be a bumper. 
This valuable spice is a monopoly in Travancore, the 
cultivator only receiving 2-5ths of the market value 
of the crop . — Madras Times, July 10th. 
* IlT was Mr. Lawson, the Government Botanist, not 
the Analyst who reported on the cinchonas. — E d T. 
