114 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Aug.  1,1895. 
Nativk,  Entkhi'IUSK  in  Tka.— Tt  may  be  judj'ed 
that  \ve  liave  fully  entered  on  a nali\  e era  in  tea 
when  we  are  told  of  an  ordinary  Sinhalese  ]iroj)i  ietor 
near  Aniblaugoda,  booking  with  a Colomlm  Firm, 
for  5 maunds  of  tea  seed  at  I’d  3d  permaund,  and 
in  order  to  make  sure  of  the  seed,  oll'ering  to  pay 
three-fourths  of  the  money  down. 
CiN'N.VMON.— A report  on  the  London  (,>uarterly 
Sales  held  on  27tb  May,  will  be  found  else- 
where ; there  was  keen  competition  and 
better  juices,  and  surely  the  imjjrove- 
ment  should  continue  with  limited  stocks,  and 
the  troubles  out  here  this  year  with  “cinna- 
mon ]>eelers  ” and  an  erratic  season  ? 
Tka  Cultiv.vtion  in  South  CAiiui.iNA.--Mr. 
Shej>ard,  the  pioneer  of  Tea  cultivfition  in  the 
bi  nited  States,  is  a regular  reader  of  o\u  Tropical 
Agriculturist.  In  a letter  just  received  from  him 
about  his  “ T.  A.”,  he  adds, — 
My  little  tea-farm  is  coming  along  very  nicely, 
and  is  generally  regarded  as  a success,  lint  I want 
the  experience  of  a few  more  j'ears  before  making 
that  claim  myself. 
“ CANNor  WK  Australians  Grow  Our  Own 
Tea”  is  asked  in  an  editorial  note  in  the  Melbourne 
Herald.  Reference  is  made  to  the  growth  of 
“Chimonanthusiragrans”  in  England  and  the  writer 
says  that  “ tlie  j^uoject  to  grow  tea  in  Australia, 
a contingency  wnicii  Avould  make  the  continent 
self-contained,  does  not  imply  anything  like 
breeding  p )lar  bears  at  the  eijuator  I ” Rut  to 
grow  tea  to  j>ay,  cheap  labour  is  indis))cnsable 
and  also  a good  deal  of  rain  well  distributed. 
Thu  Nativk  Tka  Planting  Inoustrv  is 
rapidly  extending  and  the  amount  of  inoney 
spread  among  the  people  in  the  Gampola,  N’awala- 
jutiya  and  Matale  valleys,  in  consequence,  is 
very  considerable.  One  calculation  saiil  to  be  a 
safe  one,  is  that  not  less  than  2^,  to  3 million  lb.  of 
leaf  from  native  tea  gardens  will  be  bought 
this  year  by  the  factories  in  and  around  Gam- 
jiola  and  Nawalajiitiya.  Then  there  has  also 
been  a very  large  amount  of  money  |>ai<l  away  in 
these  and  adjacent  districts  to  the  fSinhalese  for 
plucking  on  the  regular  plantations  ; but  the 
j>eoj)le  ai*e  so  well-olt  now  that  it  is  diflicult  to 
get  them  to  come  to  work  where,  a few  years 
ago,  they  were  begging  for  employment  ! 
Cinnamon  in  Rvskntrv.— We  draw'  sjiccial 
attention  to  the  following  j)aragraph  from  the 
Lancet  together  with  the  note  of  tlie  editor  of  the 
Hharmaccuticdl  Journal  : — 
Surgeou-jNXaj or  Avetoom  has  found  the  adminis- 
tration of  a bolus  of  a drachm  of  powdered  cinna- 
mon bark  taken  morning  and  evening,  washed 
do  All  by  a mouthful  of  water,  very  successful  in 
thirty  cases  ; observations  were  extended  over  a 
period  of  two  years,  ordinary  cases  were  cured  by 
one  or  two  doses,  the  worst  by  six  administra- 
tions {Lancet,  March,  1895). 
[These  results  would  render  the  trial  of  cinna- 
mon oil  or  cassia  oil  in  suitable  doses  interesting, 
the  therapeutic  result  would  probably  be  the  same 
and  would  obviate  the  necessity  of_  swallowing  a 
large  amount  of  inert  “ woody  fibre.”]  . , 
The  other  day  we  reported  the  wondertul  ellects 
of  ciiiiiamoii  in  so-called  cases  of  cancer.  Now 
Ceylon  is  the  sjiecial  home  of  ciiinamoii,  ami 
it  lioasts  of  medi(-al  men  of  no  mean  rc|iutation. 
How'  is  it  that  one  of  them — say  Dr.  11.  IVl. 
Kernaudo,  M.i).,  n.  .sc.,  Lomlon,  bellow  ot  I ni- 
versity  College,  docs  not  give  the  world  the 
benelit  of  original  e.\pcriniunts  with  cinnamon, 
and  tell  us  for  the  good  alike,  of  Euro|)ean 
and  native  snll’erers,  whether  the  sjiice  is  ol 
the  value  usciibed  ty  it  above  and  iii  tlueateued 
' cancer. 
Tiik  V.vluk  of  land  in  Kuala  Lumpur  so 
signally  dejireciated  some  four  years  ago  is  now 
rejiorted  to  be  as  high  as  ever.  The  value  of 
house  projjerty  is  also  said  to  be  undoubtedly 
greater  than  it  has  ever  been. — Pinang  Gazette. 
Sv.sTHEsxs  or  CAri'EiNE. — At  the  present  time,  when 
the  production  and  price  of  caffeine  are  in  a some- 
what critical  state,  the  announcement  of  the  syn- 
thesis of  the  alkaloid  has  a special  interest,  although 
we  must  say  the  lines  upon  which  Professor  Emil 
Fischer,  the  successor  of  von  Hofmann,  at  Berlin, 
and  his  pupil  Lorenz  Ach  do  not  appear  to  give 
immediate  hope  of  the  application  of  the  process 
in  a commercial  scale.  As  this  is  the  first  synthesis 
of  caffeine,  details  of  the  methods  used  will  be 
looked  forward  to  with  considerable  interest. — Chemist 
and  ! h-uggi.st . 
The  Action  of  Coc.vine. — We  observe  from  a recent 
paper  by  lihrlich  and  Einhorn  that  they  say  that 
Macliigan  first  observed  in  1857  that  the  alkaloid  from 
Ln/thiv.rijlon  Coca  produced  a sensation  of  numbness 
when  placed  on  the  tongue : thus  apparently  antici- 
pating Von  Anrep,  who  found  in  1879  that  cocaine 
has  the  propertj-  of  a local  amesthetic.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  know  upon  what  grounds  the  authoi's 
make  this  statement.  We  have  the  best  reason  for 
saying  that  Sir  Douglas  Maclagan  made  no  observa- 
tions of  the  kind  in  the  year  given. — Chemist  and 
l)naj<jist. 
Pkoitts  of  Dooars  Tea  Estates. — Twenty-nine 
per  cent  per  annum  all  round  for  the  tea-companies 
of  a district  is  probably  the  biggest  average  upon 
record,  yet  this  is  what  Messrs.  Barry  Co.  re- 
cord for  the  season  of  1894  in  the  Dooars  gardens. 
Analysing  the  results  of  ninety-five  joint-stock  tea 
companies  registered  in  Calcutta,  they  write  : — “ The 
highest  profit  realised,  by  anv  individual  estate, 
approached  62  per  cent,  and  the  Dooars  district  takes 
the  lead  with  an  average  return  of  29  per  cent  on  a 
capital  of  46.^  lakhs.”  In  Assam  and  Darjeeling  the 
average  profits  were  over  12  per  cent,  while  in  Cachar 
and  Sylhet  they  approached  this  figure,  the  average  for 
all  district  being  nearly  15  per  cent. — Local  “ Times,” 
June  6. 
At  What  Age  Does  Yucca  Geoiuosa  Flower  ? — 
A correspondent  from  Peterhead,  N.  B.,  sends  us 
a photograph  of  a plant  of  Yucca  gloriosa,  now  in 
flower  in  that  northern  locality  for  the  first 
time,  though  it  has  been  planted  forty  years.  It 
certainly  produces  flowers  much  sooner  than  that 
in  tlie  south,  and  although  it  does  not  flower  every 
year,  it  does  so  very  frequentl)-,  and  as  is  natural, 
it  always  excites  admiration.  Neither  is  the  pro- 
duction of  flowers  in  this  case  to  be  looked  on 
as  a death  warrant.  Our  Peterhead  friends  seem 
to  have  mixed  up  some  story  they  have  read 
about  the  Agave  with  the  Yucca.  The  Agave 
really  does  die  after  flowering,  but  the  Yucca — well, 
it  is  hard  to  kill  a Yucca.  Even  London  fogs  will  not 
do  it.  We  saw  one  or  two  in  flower  on  the  Thames 
Embankment  this  year,  and,  indeed,  the  Yucca  is 
an  excellent  town  plant. — Gardeners'  Chronicle. 
Planting  in  Lower  Perak  District. — The  coconut 
trees  planted  by  the  Pengliulu  and  others  are  splen- 
did, many  five  year  old  trees  being  full  of  blossom 
and  fruit.  The'indiarubber  trees,  too,  have,  done 
remarkably  well,  even  on  the  poorest  soil,  but  the 
coffee  and  pepper  are  very  miserable.  But  several 
circumstances  must  be  taken  into  consideration; 
first  that  the  soil  is  very  poor,  secondly  that  much 
of  it  was  poisoned  by  the  cultivation  of  nilam,  and 
that  the  Malays  never  could  be  brought  to  realize 
till  too  late  the  vital  importance  of  keeping  the  land 
clear  and  the  young  colTee  trees  free  from  grass  and 
» weeds.  'J'hey  allowed  grass  to  grow  up  and  the  coffee 
was  pennanenlly  injured,  besides  whicli  fires  occurred 
and  (luaiitilies  of  both  |>epper  and  coffee  were  burned, 
i-'iiithuf  inland  the  soil  impiovcs  and  the  gardens 
look  much  better.  Where  the  coffee  has  been  taken 
care  of  it  is  bearing  heavily,  and  the  fruit  trees  are 
very  healthy.— Cecil  Wray,  Acting  District  Magis* 
trate,  April  Vi,-^Vcrak  Goverimait  Gazette, 
