56 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [Julv  r,  1895. 
An  Uuj  (’ui'kkk  I’lantkh— leave!?  tlie  island 
today  in  Mr.  -losepli  laser  of  the  Pitakande 
n;rou|)  of  Matale  estates,  on  a trip  home  of  from 
()  to  9 montlis.  Mr.  I'raser  is  welhknown  to  he 
very  snceessfnl  in  his  eultivation  of  tea  on  old 
eolVee  land  and  he  has  now  added  eaeao  to  his 
products.  ,\sked  today  liow  tea  on  old  coH'ee 
land  hiis  met  his  expectations,  he  j^a\e  us  a de- 
cidedly concise  and  canny  yet  sii'iiilicant  reply  ; — 
“ Tea  on  my  places  has  just  done  tu  ice  as  well  as 
ever  I expected  it  to  do.'’ 
Thk  Au.str.xl.v.s[.\n  Dkmanu  for  Indian  tea 
has,  we  are  glad  to  see,  opened  well  this  season. 
Messrs.  Forbes  and  Walker  learn  hy  wire  that  the 
exports  eomjiare  as  follows 
To  A.i;3TE.\r,i\  and  New  Zealand. 
Ih. 
From  1st  May  to  iJlst  May  (by  wire)  ..209,000 
Same  period  last  year  ■ • 100,000 
For  Ceylon  tea  this  year,  the  same  firm  give  the 
following  comjiarison  : — 
'J’o  Austuai.ia  and  New  Zealand. 
Ih. 
'Total  export  from  1st  .January  1H9.5,  to  date.  .1,200,000 
Same  period  last  year  ..  ..  il, 5 10,000 
Tni:  ‘■Aohicoltuhal  Gazetie  of  New  Sourti  Wales” 
Vol.  VI.  Part  1 April  1895,  has  for  contents  The 
Black  or  Hpear  Thistle— (Carduus  lanceolatus,  Linn  ) 
J H Maiden.  Weeds  of  New  South  Wales — J.  H.  Mai- 
den. Part  II.  Digests  of  Reports  of  these  from 
Country  Districts.  Botanical  Notes.^Spread  of  a 
Cassia  this  Season  ; A Bulbous  Plant  suspected  to  be 
poisonous  to  Stock  ; Some  Plants  recently  introduced 
into  the  vicinity  of  Honiebush  Sheep  and  Cattle 
Sale-yards,  J H Maiden.  Cross-bred  Sheep  and  Rota- 
tion of  Crops — I Coleman.  Report  of  Sugar  Beets 
Grown  at  Hawkesbury  College  T'ami— June,  18‘.)4-95 
(with  Note  hy  the  Chemist— By  the  Principal  and  the 
Experimentalist.  Some  Fruit  Pests. — A H Benson. 
Some  .-Australian  Wesvilsor  Snout  Beetles— A S Olliff. 
Entomological  Notes  from  Ilawkesburg  Agricultural 
College— C T Musson.  The  Honey  Bee.— R Holms. 
Part  II. — The  Anatomy  of  the  Reproductive  Organs  of 
the  Queen  and  Action  of  Fertilisation.— R Helms.  Bee- 
keeping— Uniting  Nuclei  and  small  Swarms.  Albert 
Gale.  ^Chemical  Notes.— Bonedust  from  Orange  ; 
Honey  from  Richmond  River  ; Weight  per  hushel  of 
this  Season’s  Wheat.  F B Guthrie.  Practical  Vegc- 
taTile  and  Flower  Growing.— Directions  for  the  month 
of  May.  Orchiud  Notes  for  May.— General  Notes. 
28-Spotted  Lady  Bird  and  Tomatoes  ; Ramie  Fibre  ; 
Growth  of  Forest  Trees.  Agricultural  Societies’  Shows, 
roC()NCT8  ANM)  1 KICKING  A CUAl!.  — In  .Africa 
there  exists  a certain  member  of  the  crab  genus 
commonly  known  as  the  Great  Tree  ( 'rah.  This 
peculiar  shell-tisli  has  an  oll'en.sive  trick  of  crawl- 
ing up  the  coconut  trees,  biting  off  the  coconuts, 
and  then  (treeping  down  again  backwards.  The 
theory  is  that  the  nuts  are  shattered  by  the  fall, 
and  the  Great  Tree  Grab  is  thus  enabled  to  enjoy 
,a  hearty  meal.  Now,  the  natives  who  inhabit 
re  dons 'infested  by  this  ill-conditioned  crab  are 
well  aware  that  t'lie  lower  iiortion  of  the  crab’s 
anatomy  is  soft  and  sensitive,  and  they  believe 
that  the  ••bi\ale”  was  thus  constructed  in  order 
that  ho  might  know  when  he  had  reached  the 
'roumC  amrwhen,  conse<|uently,  he  might  Avith 
safety  release  hi.--  gr.isp  of  the  trunk,  oo  what 
they"^do  in  order  to  stop  his  deiircdations,  which 
often  ruin  the  coconut  crops,  is  this : While 
the  crab  is  engaged  in  nipping  ofl  the  coconuts,  they 
climb  half-way  up  the  trees  and  there  drive  in 
a row  of  long  nails  right  round  the  tree,  allow- 
iii<r  an  imdi  or  so  of  the  nails  to  project.  The 
crab  has  no  knowledge  of  disaster  nor  yet  of  the 
lit'ne.ss  of  things.  As  he  descends,  the  sensitive 
Dirt  of  his  body  suddenly  touches  the  nails. 
Thinking  lliat  he  has  neu  hed  the  ground,  he 
naturally  lets  go.  In.stantly  he  falls  backwards  and 
ci'aekii  hi8  own  slmll  yii  thegrouud.— ib'.Ww  Oitinioiu 
(IVKH-l’KODUCTION  IN  Inuia— isiiow  the  chief 
risk  before  Ceylon  tea  planters — and  the  ex- 
traet  we  gii  e elsewhere  from  the  Pluiifcrs'  Gazette 
shows  the  enormous  impetus  to  [ilanting  ex- 
tension in  the  Dooars  and  elsewhere,  given  by 
the  foolish  cry  in  Ceylon  and  the  unfortunate 
response  of  Government,  that  no  more  land 
should  he  sold  for  tea.  What  Ceylon  might 
do,  was  the  one  great  fear  behue  Indian  in- 
vestors up  till  last  year  ; and  now  they 
are  making  up  for  lost  time,  while  eiery 
Ih.  of  their  tea  is  e(tual  in  strength  to  Ij-  lb. 
of  (.’eylon  at  least.  In  Bengal  alone  the  area 
cultivated,  increased  last  year  from  93,<JU0  to 
110,OUU  acres.  There  i.s  nothing  for  it  but  to 
comiuer  .\nierica  for  our  teas,  by  AdcertiaiHg. 
Siioirr  L.ujouk  Supply. — A projirietor  xMites  ; 
— “ All  very  well  to  say  Estates  don’t  get  pro- 
per work  out  of  their  coolies,  but  can  they 
double  it?  Ceylon  needs  20  to  30,000  additional 
labourers  and  next  year  will  need  as  many  more 
to  keeji  pace  at  all  with  the  leaps  and  bounds 
of  tea  1 “ Clippers  ” are  the  only  remedy  if  la- 
bourers run  short,  but  the  fault  with  these 
machine.s  i.s  they  don't  take  ofl'  hangy.” 
Has  our  correspondent  examined  the  figures  we 
gave  on  Saturday  ? Where  are  the  147,0<.MJ  sur- 
idus  coolies?  (“  X good  many  of  them,  serving 
under  Sinhalese  !”  answers  today  in  person,  a 
well-known  Northern  (daiiter  to  our  astonish- 
ment.) We  call  attention  to  further  letters  on 
the  (juestion  ; hut  must  again  protest  against 
any  meddling  with,  or  transfer  of  the  Cess  before 
the  end  of  1896  at  the  earliest. 
I’lCKAK,  Kin’i'a  Monthly  Hkpokt  koH  Aphil, 
1895.  .Mr.  F.  W.  Mais  of  the  Trigonometrical 
Survey,  visited  the  District  on  business  connected 
with  his  Department.  The  Ke.sident  Engineer  for 
Railways  made  a sncces.sfnl  trial  trip  over  the 
railway  line  between  Kota  Bharu  and  Kampar 
stations  on  the  30th,  prejiaratory  to  opening  the 
through  service  from  Tel uk  Anson  to  Ipohonthe 
1st  May.  The  survey  for  rail  way  extension  from 
Ipoh  to  Tanjong  Rambutan  (8  miles)  i.s  jiro- 
ceeding  rapidly.  .Already  .about  a mile  of  earth- 
work h.as  lieen  constructed,  so  that  the  whole 
work  should  be  com]deted  well  within  this  year. 
Good  (irogress  has  been  m.ade  in  laying  the  line 
for  the  much  needed  Ijioh  water- works,  and  when 
the  pipes  arrive  from  England  the  completion 
should  he  rajiid. — Perak  Govt.  Gazette. 
Coconuts  in  Flokid.a. — X writer  in  the /'7or«/c( 
Fruitffroirer  speaks  of  co(!o-palms  in  that  region 
bearing  at  the  rate  of  200  to  5<KI  nuts  annually. 
We  deem  this  to  he  almost  a physical  impossi- 
bility ; and  certainly  when  we  jtersonally  travelled 
through  Florida  in  1884,  we  .saw  nothing  in  the 
soil,  climate  or  Aegetation  to  Avarrant  such  re- 
turns. Coconut  palms  Avere  few  there  ten  years 
ago,  and  Ave  confe.ss  Ave  did  not  happen  to  go 
to  where  they  grcAv- our  object  being  rather  to 
inspect  orange  gardens.  But  -iirely  the  Florida 
cultivator  a'Iio  peaks  of  anything  o\  er  200  nut>, 
includes  all  the  small  nuts  Avhich  dro)i  imma- 
turely  ? Can  he  giie  us  undeniable  testimony  that 
200  fully  matured  nuts  are  gathered  from  single 
lalms  in  a year?  lie  sjicaks  of  a large  demand 
ly  planters  for  “sprouted  nuts”  at  from  10  to 
15  (lollars— say  35  to  50  rupees — per  loO.  Florida 
s,  no  doubt,  going  to  be  a great  palm-groAving 
land;  already,  says  the  Avriter  avc  (piote;  — “We 
h.ave  nine-tenths  of  the  coconuts  groA\  n in  the 
rnit(‘d  .States,  and  I have  yet  t(»  sei*  oni' killed 
by  the  h.'ird  Aiinter  of  !l4-!t5.''  bast  Avinter 
played  havoc  with  the  orange  trees,  and  it  i>, 
iimi  vclloufi  that  tliepuhu!!  withstood  the  I'vost, 
