December i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
417 
MR. JOHN HUGHES AND ANALYSES OF 
CEYLON TEA LAND— THE BARREN SOILS 
OF CEYLON— MR. D. MORRIS AND 
BOTANICAL STATIONS IN THE 
WEST INDIES— COCONUT BUTTER. 
Meeting Mr. J. Hughes this week he told me 
that he had received a letter from your Planters’ 
Association asking him to mention the terms upon 
which he would undertake the analyses, after 
the system lately discussed in the Observer, of 80 
or 100 samples of teas. Mr. Hughes said he 
should answer that letter by this present mail, and 
we hope, therefore, that his services may soon 
be made available in a direction in which, as it 
seems to us here, they may be most beneficially 
employed. 
During the course of conversation, Mr. Hughes 
remarked to me that he had read with much 
interest your editorial in the Trojncal Agri- 
culturist last received here on the barren soils 
of Ceylon. He told me that with all that was ad- 
vanced in that article he very fully agreed, and that 
it was in accordance with experiments made by him- 
self upon samples of Queensland soils which had been 
sent home to him some years back by the late 
Mr. Daintree, who was — to the best of my recol- 
lection— formerly the Colonial Secretary of Queens- 
land. These samples represented soils upon which 
virgin forests grew ; others which had relapsed from 
cultivation others which produced scrub only ; and 
some upon which no vegetation at all could be 
grown. Mr. Hughes did not enter upon full details, 
but he told me that he found that all the soils 
which would not produce a tree growth were singu- 
larly deficient in potash. He believed, therefore, 
that the last constituent is a necessity for the 
cultivation of timber or fruit trees, and that this 
can never be successful unless potash is either na- 
turally present or is artificially supplied. He re- 
marked further that there was great difficulty in 
laying down any invariable rules for the fertiliza- 
tion of soils, thus — he mentioned to mo an in- 
stance lately under his notice in Cornwall where the 
farmers are in the habit of covering their fields 
before the cultivation season with six inches of sea- 
sand— obtaining the best results. Seeing such re 
suits follow the practice, farmers in other localities 
had tried the process, but with most unhappy 
effect. Inquiring into the cause of difference, 
Mr. Hughes said that he found the whole of 
the sea-sand around Bude — where the prac- 
tice mostly prevailed — to be composed of finely 
comminuted shells. The dressing was, there- 
fore almost of pure lime. But in the districts 
where the experiment failed so signally the sea- 
sand had an altogether different character; It 
was of comminuted rocks only, and this was hardly 
likely to possess fertilizing constituents. Mr. 
Hughes’ deduction from this and from other in- 
stances in his experience is that no invariable 
rule can be laid down as to measures likely either 
to restore lost fertility or to increase that existent. 
Both soil and fertilizer must be closely examined 
in every case, and the combination of their several 
ingredients considered. Nevertheless he believed 
that the suggestion made in your article as to 
aerating long disused soils must be ever of good 
effect, as these, when exposed, would naturally 
take up from the atmosphere what their condition 
demanded, and would reject assimilation of those 
which it did not require. 
We see that Mr. D. Morris of Kew is going 
out shortly to the West Indies to advise the 
authorities of the Windward and Leeward Islands 
with respect to botanical stations. He will take 
out with him several wardiau cases containing 
53 
gambler plants, it being believed that this may 
prove to be a profitable cultivation. 
My reference to Kew reminds me as to a 
subject treated of in the latest issue of the 
Keiv Bulletin, in which you are sure to feel 
a groat interest. This is the manufacture 
of butter from coconuts. I lately asked you in 
these letters if you had heard anything of this 
new substance, having seen some casual reference 
to it, but was not prepared to learn, as we have 
now done from the details published by the kew 
authorities, how important a manufacture coco- 
nut butter is likely to become. Quoting the British 
Vice-Consul at Berlin, the Bulletin inform us that 
the process of extracting edible fat from coconut 
“ marrow ” was discovered about five years ago by 
a Dr. Schlink, and that it has been worked since 
1888 by a firm in Mannheim. The appreciation of 
this butter has so extended that factories of it 
are now in course of erection in Pau and at Amster- 
dam. The Vice-Consul tells us that the sub- 
stance has already an almost unlimited sale, the 
trade being chiefly with Germany and Switzerland. 
He declares it to be gradually but quickly oust- 
ing from public favour oleo-margarine and all 
other butter preparation from animal fats. The 
present factory, he further tells us, can only supply 
about 50 cwt. daily, while the demand is frequently 
up to twice that amount. The Bulletin informs 
us further that the price at which this butter is 
sold is from 6id to Tgd per lb. the nuts being pro- 
cured from the South Sea Islands and the African 
and South American coasts. The butter pro- 
duct consists of GO to 70 per cent of fat and 
23 to 25 per cent of organic matter, of which 
matter 9 to 10 per cent is albumen. The product 
is of a clear white colour and hardens at 66 de- 
grees Fahr. It is said to be very suitable for 
cooking purposes and has no disagreeable taste or 
smell. Altogether we seem justified in the expecta- 
tion that coconut butter will ere long becomel a 
large article of consumption in every househod. 
No housewife, however much she may justly turn 
up her nose at oleo-margarine and doubt its origin 
of manufacture, would do so at the outcome of th e 
pure coconut; and as we can’t buy cooking butter un- 
der Is 2d to Is 4d per lb. here, the alternative would 
be sure to be welcomed, and you in Ceylon should 
be on the look out for sharing in the supply of its 
“ raw material,” the demand for which will prob- 
ably increase highly. I can’t say, the cooking with 
coconut oil, however freshly this may have been 
expressed, was ever quite to my palate. Probably 
the offending cause, whatever it may be, is removed 
under this new process. — London Cor. 
THE CEYLON AMERICAN TEA CO., LD. 
The following is an extract from a London letter 
to the local agents : — 
“ The new Tea Co. seems to 'be making encoura- 
ging progress, and I think Wattson & Farr will be 
successful in getting all the agents they require ; if 
so I consider that success is secured. Grinlinton 
will tell you all about the meeting of the Tea Com- 
mittee of the Ceylon Association here. Mr. Davidson, 
who came from America primed with the accusations 
and charges made by an anonymous individual in 
New York, laid all these before the Tea Committee 
last week. On Mr. Grinlinton’s being informed of 
it ho expressed a wish to meet him before the Com- 
mittee, and this was arranged for the 15th ins’t 
Mr. Davidson was shut up practically by Grinlintons. 
first answer, and opened not his mouth again’ 
Grinlinton’s statement was well received.” 
From the Neto York Journal of Commerce, wo quote 
as follows : — 
“The Ceylon Planters’ Tea Company has been in- 
corporated with a capital of §1,000, 009 to take over the 
