February 2, 1891.] 
THF- TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
587 
as elsewhere, probably. Forest land in this country 
requires manure for coffee, yet apparently tor a quicker 
start men prefer steep slopes. The land after clearing 
must from its position and in a climate of great heat 
and heavy rains, quickly deteriorate. On the other 
hand, levels can be forked without loss of soil, the 
process alona without ntanure being a continuous 
improvement. 
Drainage of course is necessary, as with nearly all 
other cultivation. 
Moreover the hill sides seem most difficult to pro> 
tect from winds, uecessitatiog what would appear a 
severe and wasteful topping. From the consequent 
excessive growth of wood nnd succours in so small a 
limit, pruning has to be rigorously attended to. An 
art that even few English gardeners understand. 
The next question is as to the best distance to plant. 
Irrespective of the size of a healthy bush, it may be 
asked why 6 into 6 is advocated with a plant having 
such immense and exhaustive lateral roots. The only 
answer I could ever obtain was, that by covering the 
ground, weeding is saved. This seems a doubtful 
argument with labour at 5 annas the day ; crop at £100 
the ton. Again with the casual labour of India com- 
pared with the skilled of Europe is it reasonable to 
expect satisfactory profits from such large plantations, 
as appears to be the correct idea ? To properly culti- 
vate 100 acres of fruit trees, 1,200, even 1,500 in some 
cases, to the acre, is no casual work. Some able men 
succeed, but it i.s safer to ask the c.ause of uinety-nine 
fadiues, than to be told, as is too often the case, of one 
success. 
If men of experience could have begun with what 
they know now, would they or not have sought out 
the sheltered hollows of valley, s, planting their coffee 
in small fields with ample space between each bush, 
say at 9 into 9 and topping at 6 feet, where grass lands 
would admit manure on the spot and irrigation avail- 
ble ? What secures good crops in coffee, the writer 
knows n. t ; but it is certain that in Europe fruit 
trees best succeed by regular surface digging and top 
manuring, thereby enticing tlie luttral roots towards 
the surf.ice. It- is statvd that there is no gain troni 
topping high, as ilie lower branches die ; but is this 
really so if the luish is well nourished and has suificient 
room for I'ght and air ? 
Shade is now advocated. Is it an advantage where 
irrigation is available, or is it only a help in the event 
of showers failing to give sufficient moisture to lateral 
roots when the blossom is out ? L. 0. 
Tea in Ambagamuwa giving 450 Ib. all round 
per acre at five years old, and planted on patana 
and scrub land, jpust be considered very good, and 
shut the mouths of critics who speak of the district 
neyev bearing more than 300 lb, all over. One of the 
largest places in lower Ambagamuwa has, we hear, 
exceeded the estimate by over 10,000 lb. of tea 
giving 400 lb. an aore fgr young and old fields 
all over. 
D.irjeeling. — Simply delightful weather here for 
those who are left in the “ Holy Spot,^’ and barring 
a few oases of mild chilblains, I know of nobody 
who is_ either sick or sorry after the Christmas 
fesfivities. The tea drier controversy in your columns, 
I confess, is a little over my head, but I certainly 
think Mr. Davidson has the best of it. I know as 
a fact, that ono of his driers in this district was 
tinkered at by an amateur ka of cou s with 
a view to improving it, and equally of course, with 
the result of very' mnofi lessening its drying capabi- 
lities. \'erb. sap. sat I have heard great things of 
the Blackman air propeller, as used in this district 
on one garden, which almost always tops the list 
in the London market, and hope to be able to tell 
your readers all atiout it when the next manufac- 
turing season ooraes round. So far as I can Lear 
and see, cold weather work in this neigbbonihood is 
well in band, and I have heard nothing in the nay 
of complaints as to labour being in any way short. 
Indian Planters' Gazette, 
ECHOES OF SCIENCE. 
MM. Fremy and Verneuil have presented another 
paper to tbo Academie des Sciences, Paris, on an 
improved method of manufacturing rubies. Instead of 
employing pure aiuminia, they now use chromated 
alumina, alkalised with carbonate of potash, which 
does not impair the purity of the crystals, while 
faciiiating their formation and embracing the beauty 
of their colour. Other iraprovemeiita have been intro- 
duced, especially in lengthening the time of the reaotiou 
to a week or more, thus engendering hard, rhombohedral 
crystals of a large size. A gas furnace is used iu place 
o£j a coke one, and thus a constant temperature of 
1,300 deg. C. can be maintained for weeks. Large 
crucibles, giving more than three kilogrammes of rubies 
at one operation, are now adopted. MM. Appert the 
well-known glass-howlers, have allowed the investigators 
to make use of their furnaces, and they have thus 
been able to prepare rubies whieh are iu part sapphires 
or crystals, red on one side and b:ue on the other 
a phenomenon sometimes found in nature. The tame 
charge will also produce crystals entirely red and 
others wholly blue, perhaps owing to a diffeien’ce in 
the oxidation of the chromium. 
Can these crystals, which are large as natural slones 
be used for jewellery and in clockwork? Practice 
alone can answer this question, but. M. Taub has 
submitted them to a lapidary, who found their hard- 
ness comparable to that of the ordii ary ruby The 
exp rimeuts nmy now he considered to have reached 
the ludustrial stage. 
On the right bank of the River Lunain (Seine at 
Marne) there are beds of sand which, accordine- to 
a recent discovery, served to polish the flint wtanons 
ot the Neolithic men in that part ot France 
Armand Vire has found no less than ten <iteli,r' 
of the new stone age iu ihi, district. Most of these 
piimtoval work shops are situated on the hills alonp 
the rivers, and not in the valley itself. Probably R 
was sa'or in those days to work under cover of the 
forest than b siuo the .str.am, although the polishing 
saud had lO be triiiiSported wilii some labour. * 
Gotta poicha derives us nauie from the Malayan 
words, puefa a gum, and peHcha a cloth, and was lu- 
tieili.oea to the civilised wor.d in ISIiJ, by Dr M nt 
g-.m.ry a Scotch surgeon The first specimens were 
liiought to London irein Singapore by Josd Almeida 
and tne properties ot the gum were announced hv 
Hancock, Wheatstone, ami Faraday. The last two 
physic.sts recognised its fitness as an insulator of wires 
conveying eleotmity. and it was so employed iu the 
first subinarme cable, laid by Mr. C. V. Walker in 
ihe Channel and subsequently in that laid between 
Dover and Calais m 1851, and in the Transatlantic 
cab.es. 
The only guttapercha suitable for insulating cables 
IS omaiued from the species Isonandra, iuhabitiuo- 
the Malay Archipelago, and during the last foitv 
yeais the trees have neaily been exterminated by 
the natives recklessly cutting down the second growth 
The origital 'Ariety, the dsoiiaudia Guiia oi Kooket 
IS now only found on the Cbasseriau EAate iu the 
old forest ofBoukett Tunab (Hill of Tin), situated 
in the middle of Singapore. Other repreBeutatives of 
the speoiGs are ‘‘‘so becoming scarce, and the gums 
of the African Aasstrt rarbii the Guianan d/fmtsmi.s 
Batata, and the i’aymta Leeni aie very inferior 
substitutes. Fortunately the Dutch have taken nn 
the culture of the plant in Java with success ■ but 
it would be well if strious attention were turned 
to its propagation iu Singapore, Us native habitat 
Gutta peiclia farming is likely to bs profitable 
A tree recedtly discovered in, tee Sequoia National 
Park was 4lJ feet in diameter. i'50 feet high, and 
had 6,126 aaouai rings of growth. 
The motio the Biazniaua hud stamped upon, their 
now 20 rs. broze o .in is “ Vmtem popundo, vintem 
ganho,” — a cent saved is a cent earned. — American 
Grocer, 
