?34 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1891, 
in the ne’ehhonrhood. It is what is described as a 
hungry soil, is very poor in organic matter, and ow. 
ine to its composition has very little retentive or 
capillary powers. And in many parts of the Cinnamon 
Gardens a layer of hard sandstone underlies the sand 
at a few feet depth, and has to be broken through 
to make holes for plants to be put down, A com- 
parison between trees growing on such a soil, with 
those growing generally in the most highly favoured 
of Inland districts, will therefore be a crucial one. I 
have a tolerable acquaintance with the inland districts 
where coconuts grow, and I think have visited all, 
if not nearly all, the crack estates. As a result of 
very close and careful observation, I unhesitatingly 
say that, taken as a whole, the trees in the Cinnamon 
G»>-den“ are, for habits of growth and prndue^-iveness, 
Buperinr to those in the best inland districts I have 
yisi<-ed. 
It will be useful to enquire into the reason for 
this, hut the results will be purelv inferential, for un- 
fortunately I cannot lay claim to any but 
the most rudimentary acquaintance with the 
principles of Agricultural Chemistry. But I do 
lay claim to the close observation which 
I have brought to bear on a tolerable know- 
ledge of practical agriculture. To be concise : I 
think the reason for this is to be found in the fact that 
in the Cinnamon Gardens, an exact counterpart of two 
of the natural conditions under which coconuts grow 
is to be met within a free soil and easy acc''sa of the 
roots to water, while the atmosphere and soil of the 
Cinnamon Gardens can never he wholly devoid of salt, 
and in the S.-W. monsoon months must be charged 
with it. This is the inference I draw from a com- 
parison of the growth and habits of the trees in the 
poor sandy soil of the Cinnamon Gardens with those 
grown in the rich, and in some instances, alluvial soil 
inland. 
Abundance of moisture plays an important part in 
the economy of the coconut palm. The palm is a huge 
pumping machine for sending up water for the forma- 
tion and development of its nuts. An examination of 
the, roots will show how admirably adapted they are 
for this piirnose. The trunk too is a soft spongy mas° 
reeking with moisture. An examination of the fronds 
and their disposition will show that nature intended 
them to act as so many dnots to catch and carry 
'rain water down the stem to the roots. It ought, there- 
fore. to he the aim of the sk'lful agriculturist, whenever 
coconuts are grown in sitnations where moistures does 
not abound, to aid nature to obtain the necessary 
moisture. 
As I said more than once before, the habits of trees 
grown in the inland d'stricts are quite different from 
those growing on the se«horde. The most noticeable is 
their inability to support their hunches of fruits without 
artificial aid. Props to support hunches are the exception 
on the seaborde, but the rule inland. Bunches, however 
small they may he, invariably snap at the stem if not 
propped up when the nuts are a few months old. This 
till the trees arrive at maturity at 20 years of age and 
over. What is the reason for this ? I hazarded the 
guess that it may be owing to a deficiency of silica, 
for that constituent is necessary to stiffen all forms 
of vegetation. Against this has been trinraphantlv 
quoted recent experiments of cereals grown in soils 
devoid of silica and yet having their stems stiff. I 
cannot see how these experiments affect the question 
at issue. In theaain'’ "'ay that earthy matter imparts 
to bones their hai-ilmss, so does silica to vegetable 
matter. It toughens and strengthens vegetable tissues, 
and remember the strain the stem of a coconut bunch 
has to bear is infinitely more, proportionately, than 
that of the atom of cereals. A ynnng coconut weighs 
from If) to 1.5 lb. and bunches with 10 to 20 nuts are 
not i;xoi jitional. A simple snm in multiplication will 
at once give us an idea of the weight the stem of a 
bunch has to support. I will not anticipate what I 
will sav hereafter by mentioning bow the supply of 
hiliealea can ho increased. Another bad habit of cnco- 
nut trees grown inland, ia their inability to support I 
th'ir fronds as soon as dry weather sets in. This I 
may bo due as much to doficiency of silica, as it, un- j 
d' ubtcdly is te an insuffioiencr of moisture, to the 
balance between evaporation at the leaves and ahsorp- 
tion at the roots being disturbed. At this season of 
the year, the drooping of branches and the dropping 
of nuts inland is nsnal An old Sinhalese man lately 
mentioned to me, as proof of the severity of the drought 
recently on the seahorde, the dropping of nuts from 
old tree", a oironmstanee not within his experience 
previou'ly. This is not uncommon inland, and is 
instanced to prove how important water is to the 
coconut tree. 
These remarks, for the length of which I apologize, 
are introductory to my subject, which I shall treat 
of in a future communication. Till then I crave a 
suspension of editorial comment. — Yours truly, B. 
THE ADVEETISEMENT FOR CEYLON TEA 
THROUGH GARTMORE TEA SELLING AT 
£10 12s 6d PER LB. 
London, E.C., March 13th. 
Dear Sir,— You will see by our circular the 
remarkable price (£10 12s 6d per lb.) we realized 
nt public auction for a little lot of Gartmore tea. 
Wc send you cuttings from the London press on the 
subject as they may interest your readers and 
show how much good is done to Ceylon tea by the 
attention of the publio being called to the splendid 
quality that can he produced if they are willing to 
pay something oyer the usual Is 8d per lb. to 2s 
per lb, — We are, dear sir, yours faithfu’ly, 
GOW, WILSON & STANTON. 
In addition to the Times from which a quotation 
was made in our London Letter on Monday, the 
other leading newspapers in London have published 
articles referring to the extraodinarilv high price of 
£10 12s 6d per lb. realised at the recent sale 
of Gartmore tea in Mincing Lane. The Daily News 
alluding to the sale says: — “Probably never been 
heard of until yesterday even in the early days of 
the importation of the leaf ; though, of course, if the 
i^ifference in the value of money is considered, the 
auparentlv lower prices of the days when tea was 
flt its dearest would be found to be in reality very 
much higher. The price ranged from 61 to 10? in 
these early days. When Garway wrote that tea, in 
respect of its scarceness and dearness, ‘ hath been 
only used as a regalia in high treatments and en- 
tertainments, and presents made thereof to princes 
and grandees,’ it was sold to the publio at from 15s to 
50s a pound. The East India Company’s presents 
of tea to Charles II. in 1664 cost them 50s. Quite 
recently some special tea was sold at only half-a- 
crown less than 61 a pound, and, on being resold at 
about 11., was talked of as one of the marvels of the 
day. Now that a price of over ten guineas has been 
reached we may’ask, are we on the eve of a repetition 
of the tulip mania, with tea instead of tulips as the 
craze." 
In an article which apneared in the Daily Telegraph 
it is said; — “ In the olden times connoisseurs paid 
fancy prices for rare vintages of port or claret. Nowa- 
days the taste seems to have changed, and tea takes 
the place of wine in Ihe high figures of the auctioii 
mart. Some days ago ‘ all the world wondered 
when a pound of tea sold at a public sale for £4 7s 6d, 
hut yesterday saw the same quantity of tea-leaf from 
< 'eylon vended for more than double that sum. ***** 
Should the value of the Eastern plant continue to 
advance by similar leaps and bounds, a tiny cup of 
tea may soon be expected to form the rarest liqueur 
served at select City banquets.” 
The Daily Oracle records an interview on the subject 
of the sale from which we extract the following '■ 
“ This sample of tea sold was grown at a high altitude. 
Its purchasers are the Mazawattee Ceylon Tea Com- 
pany. This company is attracting attention to the 
better class teas. People seem to have got into the 
idea that it is only necessary to pay from Is pa to .,2s 
per lb. for tea. They cannot get the finest qualities at 
the price. Tea is actually sold in Mincing-lane in bond 
for muoh higher figures. A large quantity of tea is soLt 
