April i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
71S 
PAPER VS. LEAD LINING FOR TEA 
CHESTS. 
We call attentioa to two more letters of in- 
terest in this connection further on : first 
from Mr. T. C. Anderson about “ Clark’s Patent ” 
paper-lead tea lining which has the reputation 
of being a very superior but rather expensive artiole, 
and next from Mr. Maitland Kirwan about his paper 
lining. In this lattep we get a very importpt 
correction on the previous information which 
reached us from London as well as locally 
respecting this paper lining. In place of costing 
more than lead lining as was last related by 
our London correspondent, the price is really only 
&hovA half that of lead lining. This makes so great 
a diSerence to tea planters that we feel sure 
trials of the new p.aper lining will be freely made 
and the matter fully inquired into. The 
pity is that a Sub-Commitlee of the Planters’ 
Association is not at once prepared to take up 
the enquiry and needful testing. Meantime, Mr. 
Anderson supplies conclusive evidence as to the 
superior quality of “ Clark’s Patent ” paper-lead, 
and if Insurance offices charged less for tea so 
packed, an equality in cost with ordinary tea lead 
might be established ? 
YAMS, GRAPES, MANGOES: PRODUCTS OF 
NORTH CEYLON. 
Mr. S. K. Lawton, the very intelligent Tamil 
gentleman who acts as agent for the Ceylon 
Steamship Co., Ltd., at Jaffna, writes to us: — 
“I send per the S. S. ‘Lady Gordon’ leaving 
Jaffna this dav a few samples of the food pro- 
ducts of the North for your acceptance pd trial. 
Whether it is attributable to its dry climate or 
the system of careful tillage anti well irrigation the 
food products of Jaffna have peculiar excellence. 
The ‘ King ’ yam has been tried elsewhere, but 
the yield has been too rapid and watery to be 
fit for the table, while the grapes and mangoes of 
Jaffna have been rarely excelled. I find very little of 
these products are being sent to other parts of the island 
perhaps owing to their not being sufficiently known. 
With regular visits of the S. S, ‘ Lady Gordon ’ to the 
different ports it would pay an enterprizing Jaffna man 
to start a supply agency for these articles. Should a 
regular trade be thus stimulated the hardworking Jaffna 
cultivator would be ablate obtain a better return for 
his labour than he does at present by supplying a limited 
local demand.” 
It is certainly very strange that there is not a 
regular trade by steamer, We heard the other 
day that grapes are still carried in the season 
by the land-route via Puttalam and Chilaw ; but 
surely not from Jaffna? Our informant, a Chilaw 
planter, has told ua that he notices the pingo men 
regularly passing and they sell at 50 cents a lb. 
the grapes which are 75 cents to a rupee by the 
time they reach Colombo. Then as regards the 
monster king yams and fine Jaffna mangoes — 
earlier in season than in Colombo, — the specimens 
Mr. Lawton has sent us are sufficient to show how 
much tho Colombo markets and the Jaffna culti- 
rator might both benefit by a trade in Northern 
products. Surely the hint now given will not 
be lost. 
«. 
MINING AND GEMIMING IN CEYLON. 
We have already expressed our regiet that the 
London Syndicate should follow up their most excel- 
lent first movement which brought so high an author- 
ity as Mr. Barrington Brown to our shores, with a 
one-sided insufficient system of working. Car better, 
wo shoul think, to delay all operations until they were 
in a position to send out the expert again with 
the staff and machinery ho might deem necessary 
to give due effect to his anticipations, or at any rate 
to develope and test on the lines of his own Report. 
We trust, therefore, that the members of the 
London Syndicate may make up their minds that 
it is no use expecting a satisfactory trial of our 
gemming and mining country by going to work 
after an imperfeot dilettante fashion. Nothing should 
satisfy those conoerned, but the despatch of Mr. 
Barrington Brown, to deal carefully and system- 
atically with the most promising of the selected 
lots of land, leased or purchased on behalf of the 
Syndicate by his advice during his stay in Ceylon. 
Before securing the land in many cases, tests 
satisfactory to the expert were applied and it 
is interesting to know that some portions have 
been leased from the famous “ Gem Notary ” of 
Eatnapura, who is credited with having amassed 
altogether as much as twenty lakhs of rupees, 
while not less than R800,000 is the amount 
this prince among “ gemmers ” states he made 
out of one famous alluvial mine near the town of 
Batnapura 1 In accompanying the expert on one 
of his testing expeditions, a relative of the notary 
showed him a spot under some huge gneiss 
rooks from which he had washed out B20,000 
worth of sapphires. If credence is to be attached 
to such figures, — and Mr. Barrington Brown appar- 
ently saw no reason to doubt them, — it is very 
evident that there is more than a jjrima facie ease 
available for European capitalists to induce them 
to deal with this Ceylon Gemming Industry. 
It was only natural that the expert should at 
every turn see openings for the applioation of 
machinery ; for instance in the ease of suitable 
portions of river beds, a steam dredger that could 
take up the bottom to the depth of 10 feet, could 
not fail to deal with a large quantity of material, 
with every chance of success. Then on the higher 
gem diggings on hillsides and along mountain 
streams in Eakwana, the applioation of hydraulic 
principles and contrivances after the most improved 
European fashion must have, again and again, 
struck the expert. On Butiyatenne and Golden 
Grove— already secured — the Syndicate would have 
full opportunity for developing hillside pits. The 
information available as to “finds” in this neigh- 
bourhood was also very encouraging : — oatseyes 
realizing from R1,000 to E5,000 each have been not 
unfrequently picked out Of the washings, 
while, as we recently recorded, larger stones of 
very much greater value are oooasionally found. 
One way of testing the returns obtained by parties 
of gem-diggers (all Sinhalese) in the Eakwana 
district, is found in the periodic sales which are 
held. Three pits at one of these sales gave results 
equal to E5,100 for seven weeks’ work, and later on, 
one of these pits, in a similar period yielded stones 
which sold for over E6,000. A good sapphire, it 
seems, is worth £6 a carat in Ceylon. 
It was surely then no wonder that Mr. Bar- 
rington Brown, after spending some months in 
our Gemming country, closely watching the 
operations of native diggers and gemmers, 
testing for himself and collecting all avail- 
able information, came to the conclusion that 
quantities of valuable sapphires and true catseyes 
bad been dug up in the gem districts of Ceylon 
tor many years. But of far greater importance is 
it to know that he is of opinion that after all 
only a small, if not insignificant proportion of the 
deposits have been worked out. The expert, in fact, 
is of opinion that there are extensive gem-bearing 
deposits in certain of our districts and that gems 
of great value ate undoubtedly to be found in such 
deposits. From the Report furnished to them, the 
1 London Syndicate must be well able to judge how 
far the expert thinks that the lands already secured 
