June i, 1891.] 
85 
THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
I honestly believe K1,000 lent in this way, would 
do more good than BIO, 000 wasted on the Kiosk. [Ue- 
garding the Kiosk I must in fairness say, I have 
recently met two planters of standing who thought it 
might do good. Onhj tivo of the many I have ques- 
tioned], So convinced am I that Mr. Foulbes’ work 
is doing us good, (hat I am willing to gnarantee 
BZ50 of the K.1,000, which he wishes the Tea Fund 
to advance him in Tea. — Yours truly, 
Wm. MACKENZIE. 
We heartily trust that three more proprietary 
planters or business men may be found to join 
Mr. Mackenzie in a guarantee of R250eaoh, and that 
the Ceylon Tea Fund Committee may make the 
needful vote for the tea now required for this 
honest, hardworking ex-Ceylon planter. 
TEA IN INDIA. 
The Calcutta brokers’ circulars dated the 22nd 
of April state that weather reports from the 
districts are generally favourable, although more 
rain is wanted in Cachar. Samples coming to hand 
maintain good quality on the whole, although there 
is a slight falling off in teas from the Darjeeling 
district. The season will probably be an unusually 
early one, as soma small parcels of tea ha ve 
already arrived here and been shipped to London, — 
Pioneer, April 28th, 
TEA-SEED FOR BRAZIL AND THE 
FUTURE OF THE TEA-PL ANTING 
INDUSTRY. 
(From an Old Planter.) 
India and Ceylon should in their own interests, 
were they wise, refuse to sell tea seed to Brazil 
The man should be boycotted who did. Putting 
such difficulties in Brazil's way as would retard 
her progress, even a year or two, means just as 
long a term of success for us. 
The Madras Presidency too, asleep for a century, 
is gradually awaking to the fact that it can grow 
tea over an area many times larger than we have 
here, and that it commands all the labor 1 

Ramie.— There appears to be some chance that 
ramie will yet come into vogue. The. Textile Jf'orld 
has seen samples of fancy worsted siUc mix i-uiiings, 
in which the silk elfeots were produced by ramie 
instead of silk threads, and so perfect was the 
imitation that it would puzz'e an expert to detect 
the difference. Mr. Charles Toppan has now pro- 
dutel suitings entirely of ramie yarn of very 
perfect worsted appearance, white fine goo s very 
much resembling linen, and now with his silk 
tmitation so perfect, it seems that there ough 
of be an immense field for ramie in the very near 
uture. — Planter and Farmer. 
Jrrioation Works in Rajpotana. — The revenue 
report on irrigation works in Rujpulana shows that 
while the capital expenditure on the three groups 
of tanks was the same as last year there was a 
deoreasa in actual collections of R2.4GG which is 
nit explained. There was a decrease however, in 
the working expenses, the oust per acre irrigated 
being Rl-6'2 against Rl'83. Some informati. n as 
regards the experimental cutting of crops is furnished 
in ihe report. The highest produce per acre for 
wheat crop was 22 maunds of g aiu and -lOi 
mauiids of straw. The vuluo of these Wire ns- 
pectively Ro5 and 10, and the exi enJitiu'o is put 
down at 1118 per acre, leaving a profit to the 
cultivator of 1M7. The dilUronce Letwoeu these 
figures and last year's is considerable.— Imhua 
Kiuiincer. 
SCIENTIFIC PEARL FISHING. 
So many suggestions have from time to time been 
made as to improved methods whereby the system 
of pearl fishing might be more economically pur- 
sued, that if there were not some radical objection 
to be taken to them, it seems to be conclusive that 
they, or some of them, would ere this have received 
adoption. When stating this view we would not 
wish to confine the scope of discussion to our own 
experience in Ceylon. Pearl fisheries are carried 
on, on a larger scale elsewhere throughout the 
world than off our own little island Those of tho 
Persian Gulf are well known, while around the 
coasts of Australia, and even in the rivers of 
Scotland experience has been gained which we think 
it may be possible would, if patent objection 
did not exist, have ere this induced those con- 
cerned with such fisheries to have employed the 
mechanical means available which are applied to 
other forms of fishing. 
No doubt the cause for this disinclination to 
depart from the beaten track, apart from the 
expense and limited power in sea water of the 
electric light or other illuminants, is to bo 
found in the special value of the pearl oyster 
and its susceptibility to rough methods of hand- 
ling. Currents which bring over the beds which the 
oyster frequents, the eflluxfrom muddy rivers cause 
its avoidance of grounds so aileoted, and very 
probably the same result would follow were the 
soil of its breeding banks disturbed by tho use of 
mechanical agencies. There can ba no doubt that 
the grasp of a clamp net would bring up at a 
single haul perhaps as many oysters as an indivi- 
dual native diver could raise to the surface in a 
day. But the first operation must entail a scraping 
of the mud, sand and coral blocks of the bank, which 
v;ould be strongly resented by the oysters ; whereas 
a diver collecting his prey with his hands and arms 
would, we should say. produce the minimum of 
disturbance. Then, again, there is the element 
of discrimination to be taken into account. Paid as 
the native diver is by a liberal proportion of the fully 
developed oysters eollectod by him, it oau be readily 
imagined that he would reject with some amount 
of care those among the oysters which might 
seem to him to be immature, and that he would 
place in his basket none but those which were 
likely to make his own share of ultimate profit 
to him. 
This consideration must certainly conduce to 
the avoidance of “ scraping ” tho banks and causing 
an entire denudation of them. It would had to 
the leaving upon the banks of a certain amount 
of seed which would in time enable them to re- 
fruetify. Now tho use of tho clamp net or dredger 
could not be possessed of this quality of con- 
sideration. All would be fish that came into its 
net. In other words, its work might prove to be 
too thorough. The two points mentioned seem to 
us to be the two chief ones which would dis- 
incline the managers of pearl fisheries throughout 
the world to depart from the existing method 
pursued and to adopt one which, while certainly 
likely to be tlienper, would iu the long run prove 
to bo ihe more cost'}'. Vfo must, however, confess 
to in perfect knowledge of the exact modus operandi of 
the fishers for pearls in our Australian colonies and in 
the rivers of Scotland. In the latter locality it is notan 
oyster winch supplies the pearls obtained but a mussel, 
which, however, our own pearl-bearing bivalve is, 
the (lifferor C0 being hi tween fresh water mussels 
and the oyster-shuped mussels of the sea. The 
Scottish ebi 11 is found only in fresh water, or at all 
events iu su h estuaries r.s experience a change with 
the flowing iu and out of tlio tides from salt 
