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THE TROPICAL AGRiCULTURlST, [March 2, 1891. 
ME. HUGHES AND TEA ANALYSES 
AND “EAG” MANUEE. 
Meeting Mr. John Hughes this week, the ques- 
tion was put to him by me as to whether he had 
yet been commissioned to make the analyses of 
tea respecting which he had been in communica- 
tion with your Planters’ Association, and which, 
it seems to be the general opinion, might be pro- 
ductive of very valuable results. Mr. Hughes toid 
me that he had received a very polite letter in 
acknowledgement of his offered terms for doing 
this, but that it contained no instructions to under- 
take the work. 
That gentleman further told n e that he had 
at length heard something as to the result to the 
application of the “rag” manure on tbe Maria- 
watte estate. He said he had heard from Mr. 
Eutherford that, having been applied side by side 
with a patch which had been treated with cattle 
manure, the trees on the latter had borne much 
the more freely. This apparently discouraging re- 
sult must, however, be largely discounted, for Mr. 
Hughes observed to me : — “ You will recollect 
when we first talked upon this subject that I 
told you that one reason why I had recom- 
mended a trial of this manure was because it 
had been ascertained to be so slow in its 
action. All my experience goes to show that if 
rapidly forcing manures can be avoided it is 
invariably better for the cultivation. Now with 
English farming it is a necessity to use 
fertilizers that are rapid in their action, that will 
yield up their constituents to the soil as quickly 
as possible. When you consider how few months 
are available for farming here at home, you will 
see that there is no time available for slow decom- 
position to work. Horse and cow manure is always 
allowed a certain amount of decomposition before 
use in order that it may commence yielding up 
directly it is applied to the ground, and this 
accounts mainly for the storage in manure heaps 
for a long time in advance of actual use. The use 
of farm litter, too, is largely subsidized in England by 
mineral manures, such as sulphate of ammonia and 
nitrate of soda, both of which begin to work directly 
they are applied. But there is no necessity for you 
out in Ceylon to demand such quick action. It is 
always injurious to /orce anything in nature, and as 
you have a climate in which your tea bushes can 
take up nourishment throughout the whole year, 
it is in my opinion much better to attain results 
gradually and not to use forcing mixtures. That 
is the reason why I yet think — in spito of the 
apparently disadvantageous comparison to be seen 
on Mariatwate — that the owners of that estate 
may yet come to acknowledge the superior 
value of this new manure. I admit that 
it is twice as bulky as are most mineral 
manures, and that that constitutes an objection ; 
but on the other hand I believe that mineral 
manures are very ill-suited to the conditions avail- 
able under the climate of Ceylon.” 
Coffee and Cinchona Culture. 
During our conversation wo touched upon the 
decadence of your coffee and cinchona cultivations. 
Mr. Hughes said he had never believed in the latter 
being well adapted to Ceylon soils. These soils 
were far and away, he said, inferior to those of 
India lor the growth of those trees, and he had 
not been surprised to hear of the numbers of them 
which had died out after a certain ago of growth. 
In reply to a question as to what he thought of 
the probable permanence of lea cultivation, Mr. 
Hughes expressed the opinion that it had every 
bacKJO ot it. " Indeed," he went on to say, " tea 
seems to me to be just the very thing for Ceylon 
planting. What do you specially observe as the 
chief characteristic of Ceylon scenery ? It is es- 
sentially (jreen, that is to say luxuriance of leaf 
pervades the island. Nature therefore leaches you 
that to produce leaf is almost certain to be the in- 
dustry to which it will lend itself in Ceylon. It 
don’t seem to me that a berry like coffee would be 
as suitable or as reliable as tea, and as to cinchona 
I have already told you what I think about 
it. Eely upon it, bot'n the climate and soil of 
Ceylon are the best adapted for tea. It is essen- 
tially a leaf island.”— London Car, 
Mana Gras.s Experiments. 
Calling in at Messrs. Lurtis & Harvey’s this 
week, one of the partners obligingly told me that 
he had just been to their mills at Hounslow that 
he had seen the charcoal burned from the ton 
of mana grass, and that the outturn was saiis- 
factory both as to quantity and as to quality. 
“ But," he said, “ 1 can’t give you any opinion as 
to the suitability of the grass for our purposes 
until some has actually been made into gunpowder. 
We expect to commence doing this very shortly, 
and you shall know the result of our first trials 
with it.” — London Cor. 
NOTES ON PEODUCE AND FINANCE. 
Keductionof Duty on Tea Increases Consumption. 
—That this istbe case is fully proved by the fresh strides 
which have been made in the consninption of tea 
during the past year as a result of the lowering of the 
duty ill May last to 4d per lb. Prior to the reduction of 
duty the increase in the consumption was very small 
last year, but in 1890 it may be said to have suddenly 
started forward, and the total for that period was 
8,386,692 lb. above the corresponding one in 1889. 
Mincing Lane Buoyant. — In Mincing Lane the easy 
state ot the money market has largely increased the 
speculative business in produce. In the tea market 
there is much animation, and the volume of business 
iu this article passing through the Produce Clearing 
House IS heavier than at any time since this institution 
was fli St used as the chauuel for speculative dealings. 
Prices have daily advanced, and now show a very 
important rise since the commencement of the year. 
The Decline and Fall op the China Tea Trade. 
— China is sadly worsted in the tea competition by 
Indian and Ceylon. The exports of tea show a fall- 
ing off of 6 per cent against the corresponding quarter 
of last year. 
^ 
During the past year a survey of tbe industries of 
Lower Burmah has been made, aud a Provincial Board 
is deputed to consider these and advise the Indian 
Government as to the best means of promoting tech- 
nical and scientific education in that province. — Globe. 
Coffee in Cooeg. — There is very little crop, for 
sale, and the owners of coffee are holding out 
for 300 rupees a Candy, i.e., quarter of a ton. 
Intending purchasers fight shy, and don’t want to 
be liberal in the price they will pay. In the 
meanwhile there is said to be no money in the 
country, and all trade is driven to the winds. The 
people are also suffering by reason of the loss of 
their paddy crops. — Bangalore Spectator. 
Mr, J. D. Pas' eur. Inspector of tbe Post and Tele- 
graph Service of Java, has sent to Dr. T. A. Jentinck 
a teak telegraph pule from tbe Kediri Residency, Java, 
which in spite of its iron harduess has been pierced 
with holes, near where the insu'ators were attached, by 
the beaks of a local wooiipecker {Ficus analis). These 
holes are also made in the living kapok trees (Erioiea- 
ilron anfractuosum), whicli are utilised as telegraph 
poles in Java. In Norway the like thing has occurred, 
and it is supposed the birds have mistaken the hum- 
ming of the wire for a nest of insects inside. Large 
cairus used to prop up telegraph poles in Norway 
have also been scattered by bears, perhaps for a 
similar reason.— 
