THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept.  2,  1895. 
ifM 
theiv  own  pood,  There  is  no  doubt  ordinary  Indian 
tea  is  better  tlian  ordinary  Chinese  tea,  and  if  the 
Tibetans  onoe  began  to  drink  it  they  would  not  be 
able  to  leave  off.  But  with  true  Mongolian  preju- 
dice they  refuse  to  believe  in  any  except  the  Chinese 
plant.  As  our  correspondent  says:  ‘‘There  is  hardly 
a doubt  that  it  would  be  bought  up  greedily,  but 
once  let  it  be  known  that  it  is  not  the  real  ii.r.,  the 
Chinese)  article,  and  no  Tibetan  would  take  it  as  a 
gift.”  Upon  such  narrow-mindedness  the  everyday 
devices  of  coinmerco  would  be  expended  in  vain. — 
II. 
— 
CAMBHOR  TREK  IN  NORTHERN  INDIA. 
It  is  not  only  in  Ceylon  that  the  idea  of  planting 
the  camphor  tree  is  attracting  attention.  In  a 
specially  contributed  article  in  the  Planter  to  hand, 
the  subject  is  seriously  discussed,  and  attention  is 
drawn  to  the  probable  suitability  of  the  cooler  ravines 
and  valleys  of  the  hill  countries  in  India.  It  is 
pointed  out  that  the  camphor  tree  is  no  stranger  to 
this  country.  We  have  tolerably  good  evidence  from 
the  records  of  the  East  India  Company  that  at  one 
time  it  flourished  in  Nepaul  and  the  ancient  kingdom 
of  Tipra,  or  Tipperah,  which  in  the  middle  of  the 
17th  century  embi’aced  the  lands  between  the  present 
Megna  and  the  Upper  Irrawaddy.  Even  within  the 
present  century,  camphor  was  exported  from  Chit- 
tagong. The  discovery  by  the  hillmen  of  the  secret 
of  extracting  camphor  from  the  root  of  the  tree  pro- 
bably led  to  the  extinction  of  the  plant.  There  is 
no  reason,  however,  why  it  should  not  be  revived. 
—Jf.  Times,  July  19. 
VARIOUS  PLANTING  OTES. 
Coffee  Pn.VNTiNO  promises  to  be  the  nnst  im- 
portant industry  of  British  Central  America.  'I'he 
export  of  coffee  for  1893  was  nearly  double  that  of 
1S.)‘2,  and  in  1891  again  nearly  doubles  1893,  and  the 
coffee  crop  of  1895  can  now  be  definitely  expected 
to  fully  double  that  of  1891.  The  land  under  culti- 
vation for  coffee  has  been  greatly  extended  during  the 
p rst  year,  and  probably  the  acreage  now  planted  is 
quite  double  what  it  was  twoyear.s  ago.  The  average 
coffee  crop  gathered  throughout  the  country  during 
the  past  year  has  been  satisfactory,  and  the  prices 
obtained  on  the  London  market  have  been  good. — 
Echo,  3rd  July. 
Ceylon  'I’e.v  in  Russia. — In  another  column 
we  publish  an  account  of  liow'  Ceylon  tea  is 
being  pushed  in  Russia  by  Mr.  Rogivue.  That 
gentleman,  according  to  his  own  showing,  has 
not  found  the  task  an  easy  one,  and  he  too  raises 
the  cry  for  more  money.  One  thing  that  will 
strike  the  reader  is  that,  many  as  the  difticulties 
are  in  America,  they  do  not  include  the  risk  of 
being  charged  in  the  Police  Court  with  attempt- 
ing To  poison  the  lieges  ! Truely  the  Ru.ssians 
are  in  a bad  way  and  almost  ileserve  to  be  left 
to  poison  them.selves  with  China  tea  I 
Ceylon  'I’ea  : Packaoes  and  Sweeping.s.— 
We  are  indebted  to  our  friend  Mr.  Tho.s.  Christy 
for  two  interesting  letters  by  last  mail  to  which 
we  call  the  attention  of  our  merchants  and 
planters.  In  one  place  he  pays  a special  com- 
])liment  to  our  Ceylon  i).ackages  ; but  he  wants 
for  We.st  Africa  and  other  moist  regions  that 
a special  airtight  lid  should  be  adopted  for  cases 
tea.— We  regret  very  much  that  any  injustice 
should  inadvertently  be  done  to  certain  London 
'Tea  Warehouse  owners  ; but  we  feel  sure  Mr, 
Christy’s  letter  will  make  all  clear  and  give 
satisfaction.— Mr.  Christy  de.serves  w'ell  of  our 
tea  planters  in  every  way  ; he  gives  an  immense 
!iim  Vint  of.  time  to  the  working  of  the  m.anu- 
facture  of  tea  sweejiings  into  caffeine  or  tliejne, 
and  latterly  has  seen  how  a ouantity  of  old  stuff' 
lying  in  the  warehouse  for  along  time,  could  lie 
utilised,  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  tlieimjiortor.s, 
the  niercliants  and  the  brokers. 
Patent  2,008.-  February  Cth  1804.  Packing  tea 
Ac.  Davidson,  S.  C.  Sirocco  Engineering  Works,  Bel- 
fast, and  MaGuire,  F.  G.  Colombo,  Ceylon.  The 
machine  shown  is  for  shaking,  during  packing,  the 
chests  or  receptacles  in  w'hich  tea  and  other  granular 
materials  are  packed.  The  receptacle  S is  secured 
on  a table  C between  jaws  Q and  the  table  is  oc- 
cillated  about  its  trunnions  N by  the  crank  F and 
m:iy  be  at  the  same  time  rotated  about  the  central 
pin  M. — Patent  .foiinial,  June‘2(>th. 
Tea  Pests. — Mr.  Milos  read  an  interesting  paper 
on  w'ell-kuown  tea  posts  at  the  Microscopical  Society, 
Calcutta,  on  Monday.  It  appears  that  the  red  spider 
leads  off  in  warm  dry  weather.  The  rains  when  they 
set  in  wash  this  pest  .away,  only  to  start  another — 
the  moscpiito  blight.  When  the  rains,  cease,  this 
Eest  also  cases,  and  in  bright  weather  is  succeede.1 
y the  scale  insect,  and  so  on.  One  pest  seems  to 
be  a benefactor — the  green  fly.  But  in  that  case 
why  call  it  a pesf?  The  enemies  of  the  tea-plant 
are  many,  and  Dr.  Watt  has  lately  discovered  a host 
of  new  pests  and  blights.  Altogether  Dr.  Watt  has, 
we  believe,  collected  between  sixty  and  seventy  pests 
and  some  thirty  fungoid  blights. — Englishman. 
Precious  Stones  and  Chemistry. — Mr.  Arthur 
Chamberlin,  in  the  Mineral  Collector  j,  says 
” An  accurate  scientific  method  has  at  last  been 
discovered,  whereby  precious  stones  may  be  distin- 
guished from  the  fraudulent  gems  which  are  now 
so  numerously  manufactured  in  the  laboratories  of 
Paris  and  other  Continental  ci'ies.  This  is  by 
testing  them  for  their  specific  gravity,  but  not  by  the 
scales  occasionally  used  for  large  stones,  and  which, 
however  delicate,  are  unreliable.  The  new  me  uis  of 
detection  of  bogus  gems  is  simple  and  ingenious, 
and  is  likely  to  he  widely  adopted  in  the  jewelry 
trade.  It  is  the  clieinist  who  has  added  tliis  know- 
ledge to  the  b'pidarv’s  art.  Several  liquids  have  been 
discovered,  which  are  more  than  three  and  a half 
times  as  den.se  as  water,  and  in  which,  therefore,  the 
amethyst,  the  beryl,  and  »ther  light  stones  will  actully 
float.  The  most  useful  of  these  liquids  is  metliylene 
iodide,  which  has  a specific  gravity^  of  3'3.  and  in 
wliicli  the  tourmaline  readily  floats.  Moreover, 
it  is  uot  corrosive  or  in  any  way  dangerous.  It  being 
impossible  for  the  lapidiary  to  prepare  a number  of 
liquids  each  having  the  specific  gravity  of  a differ- 
ent gem  stone,  the  methylene  iodide  is  easily  delu- 
ted  by  adding  benzine  to  it.  Each  drop  of  ben- 
zine added  makes  the  liquid  less  dense,  and  so  it 
may  be  used  to  separate  the  tourmaline  and  all  the 
lighter  gem  stones  from  each  other.  If  it  be  doubt- 
ful whether  a certain  gem  be  an  acquaniariue  or  a 
chrysoberyl,  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  place  it  in  a 
tube  of  the  liquid,  together  with  a small  fragment  of 
true  acquaniariue  to  serve  as  an  index.  If  it  be  a 
chrysoberyl  which  has  a specific  gravity  of  3‘6,  it 
w'ill  sink  like  lead.  If  it  be  an  aquamarine,  which 
has  a specific  gravity  of  2'7,  it  will  float.  If  the  liquid 
be  then  stirred  and  diluted  until  the  index  frag- 
ment is  exactly  suspended,  the  gem  also  will  neither 
float  nor  sink,  but  wall  remain  poised  beside  it. 
This  method  may  be  adopted  wdth  all  of  the 
lighter  stones.  But  for  heavier  gems,  like  the  car- 
buncle, the  jargoon,  the  sapphire,  the  ruby,  the 
spinal,  the  topaz,  and  the  diamond,  a different  liquid 
is  necessary.  This  has  lately  been  discovered  by  the 
Dutch  mineralogist  Retgeis.  He  has  found  a colour- 
less solid  compound  which  melts  at  a temperature 
far  below  that  of  boiling  water  to  a clear  liqiiid  five 
times  as  dense  as  water,  and  tlierefore  sufficiently 
dense  to  float  any  known  precious  stone.  This  com- 
pound is  the  double  nitrate  of  silver  and  thallium, 
its  most  remarkable  property  is,  that  it  will  mix 
in  any  desired  proportion  with  warm  water,  so  that 
by  dilution  the  specific  gravity  may  be  easily  reduced. 
Tliis  fused  mass  may  be  reduced  in  density  by  adding 
w'ater,  drop  by  dro]!,  so  as  to  suspend  in  suocossiou 
carbuncle,  s.ippliiro,  ruby  and  diamond,  These  te-.U 
111  ))vce,ious  sumes  m be  m ule  in  a few  minutes, 
and  are  absolutely  relialile,  as  all  stones  of  the  same 
nature  have  the  .same  specific  gravity.  None  of  the 
bogus  rubies  or  diamonds  have  the  same  weight  as 
those  they  are  made  to  imitate.” — Piititir  (Ijiinidn. 
