Sept.  2,  1895.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
^73 
INDIA  PATENTS. 
Calcutta,  July  11. 
Applications  iu  respect  of  the  undermentioned 
inventions  have  been  filed,  during  the  week  ending 
6th  July  1895,  under  the  provisions  of  Act  V of  1888; — 
For  “ The  Killum-right,  or  Giant  Blight  Destroyer.” 
— 218  of  1895. — Daniel  Powell,  of  No.  2 Bolton  Road, 
Newport,  in  the  County  of  Monmouth,  in  England. 
Gardener,  for  “ The  Killum-right  or  giant  blight 
destroyer.” 
Specifications  of  the  undermentioned  inventions 
have  been  filed,  under  the  provisions  of  Act  V of  1888. 
For  improvements  in  the  extraction  and  prepara- 
tion of  the  fibVes  of  rhea  and  other  grasses  and 
fibrous  vegetables. — 115  of  1891. — Henry  Cecil  Fel- 
lowes,  of  Leadenhall  Buildings,  1,  Leadenhall  Street, 
in  the  City  of  London,  England,  Merchant,  and 
William  Itobert  Crozier,  also  of  Leadenhall  Buildings, 
1,  Leadenhall  Street,  in  the  City  of  London,  England, 
Merchant,  and  Henry  Ferguson,  of  60,  Kanelagh 
Hoad,  Leytonstone,  late  of  10,  Cleveland  Terrace, 
Kanelagh  Road,  Leytonstone,  in  the  County  of  Essex, 
England,  Engineer,  for  improvements  iu  the  extrac- 
tion and  prejjaration  of  the  fibres  of  rhea  and  other- 
grasses  and  fibrous  vegetables.  (Piled  1st  .July  1895.) 
For  improvements  iu  and  connected  with  beating 
apparatus  employed  in  opening  and  cleaning  cotton 
and  other  fibups. — 375  of  1894.— August  Kirschner,  of 
19,  Rue  Gambon,  Paris,  in  the  French  Republic, 
Engineer,  for  improvements  in  and  connected  with 
beating  apparatus  employed  in  opening  and  clean- 
ing cotton  and  other  fibres.  (Filed  1st  July  1895.). — 
Indian  <C-  Eaateni  Engineer,  July  20. 
PLANTING  NOTES  FROM  COORG. 
CooKO,  July  15. 
A sad  event  has  occurred  in  the  Bamboo,  which 
has  cast  a gloom  over  the  community  there.  Mr. 
Bell,  a long-resident  planter  who  was  highly  res- 
pected and  esteemed,  passed  away  on  the  2nd  in- 
stant and  was  interred  the  next  day  in  the  new  Pro- 
testant Cemetery  in  the  precints  of  the  new  Bamboo 
Church. 
THE  ATTEMPT  TO  RAISE  LIBERIAN 
HYBRIDS  IN  COORG. 
an  unsuccessful  venture. 
It  will  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  notice  the 
non-success ‘of  Mr.  Brooke-Mockett,  the  well-known 
Mysore  planter,  to  raise  many  hybrids  like  the 
chance  hybrids  he  has  in  his  Liberian  field.  It 
was  said  at  one  time  that  he  had  a lot  of  seed 
like  what  he  thought  had  produced  the  hybrids 
in  question,  which  are  a cross  between  the 
Liberian  and  Arabian  species.  The  seed  was 
sown,  but  after  the  resulting  plants  had  been 
X)lanted  out  and  had  grown  up,  it  was  found  that 
although  some  of  them  bore  some  resemblance 
of  the  parent  trees,  there  was  marked  degeneration. 
To  those  who  knew  anything  of  the  matter,  the  re- 
sult to  the  ex|)criment  was  only  to  be  expected  if 
the  seeds,  as  was  most  probable,  were  taken  from 
the  hybrids.  The  why  and  the  wherefore  of  this  is 
easily  made  clear.  It  is  well-known  that  hybrids 
only  bear  heavily  when  their  flowers  are  fertilised 
by  the  pollen  of  one  of  the  parents,  i.c.,  if  we  have  a 
hybrid  between  a Liberian  and  an  Arabian  coffee  true, 
iu  order  that  it  may  bear  well  and  that  its  seed  may 
bo  fertile  its  flowers  niust  be  fertilised  by  the  pollen 
from  either  an  Arabian  tree  or  a Liberian  or  from  both; 
but  then  it  must  be  abundantly  clear  that  the  plants 
resulting  from  such  seed  cannot  possibly  be  true  hy- 
brids ; they  would  bear  a stronger  resemblance  to,  and 
have  more  characteristics  in  common  with  either  the 
Arabain  or  Liberian  jdt  than  to  their  immediate 
parent,  the  hybrid,  according  to  which  pollen  it  was 
that  fructified  the  flowers  of  the  latter.  It  is  said 
that  Mr.  Brook-Mockett  was  offered  as  much  as 
111,000  per  bushel  for  his  hybrid  seed,  but  he  declined 
the  offer.  He  would  have  made  a good  thing  out  of 
it  if  he  bad  accepted  it,  but  the  purchasers  would  have 
been  dreadfully  “ sold.”  I am  aware  that  some  of  this 
has  appeared  in  other  papers,  but  the  impoi'tauce  of 
what  is  here  contended  for  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  generally  appreciated,  so  I trust  it  will  prove 
interesting  to  your  planting  readers.  Each  hybrid 
is  the  result  of  the  fertilisation  of  the  flowers  of  one 
species  by  the  pollen  of  another,  and  not  the  flowers 
of  the  hybrid  itself  by  either  its  own  pollen  or  the 
pollen  of  another  species.— Jf.  Times. 
IMPROVED  TEA  MACHINERY. 
Mr.  J.  R.  Dalgarno,  repi-esenting  Messrs. 
Jackson’s  Patent  Tea  machinery,  is  once  more 
in  Ceylon  and  as  usual  he  comes  to  intro- 
duce something  new  and  an  improvement  on 
all  its  predecessors.  One  of  the  latest  of 
Jackson’s  tea-drying  machines  is  the  “ Para- 
gon,” a specimen  or  whicli  has  been  erected  on 
Tiabukclle  estate,  Ramboda,  and  another  on 
Diyagama  estate,  Dimbula,  drying  from  350  to 
.390  lb.  of  tea  per  hour.  The  special  machine 
under  notice  this  time  is  the  “ Chota  Paragon,” 
a self-contained  and  very  useful  machine  equal 
to  from  160  to  200  lb.  per  hour  and  very  com- 
pact, inasmuch  as  it  occupies  no  more  than  8 
by  16  feet  of  floor  space  ; while  the  consumption 
of  dry  wood  fuel  is  oiiual  to  about  f lb.  the  11).  of 
di-y  tea.  One  of  these  machines  has  just  been 
erected  on  Great  Western  and  gives  special 
satisfaction  to  .so  good  a judge  as  Mr.  Mackie. 
Among  the  improvements  introduced  into  this 
machine  are  the  following : — 
1.  In  this  new  air-heater  the  tubes  are  placed 
across  the  Stove  and  the  furnace  bars.  The  first 
two  vertical  lines  of  tubes  are  pushed  in  and  locked 
from  one  side  of  the  Stove ; the  next  two  vertical 
lines  from  the  opposite  side  and  so  on  ; so  that 
half  the  cold  air  enters  from  one  side  of  the  Stove 
and  half  from  the  other,  and  is  delivered  uni- 
formly heated  along  the  two  sides  of  the  Stove,  no 
matter  how  the  furnace  bars  may  be  covered  with 
fuel. 
2.  The  drying  chamber  is  placed  on  the  top  of 
the  air-heating  Stove  in  this  machine,  and  special 
notice  is  directed  to  the  fact  that  the  hot  air  by 
this  arrangement  of  Stove  is  admitted  to  the,  dry- 
ing chamber  along  the  two  sides  and  one  end  of  it, 
thereby  ensuring  the  most  uniform  distribution  of 
heat  all  over  the  drying  surfaces,  and  a consequent 
increased  drying  effect  and  economy  in  fuel.  By 
this  arrangement  all  heat  generated  from  the 
Stove  must  pass  up  through  the  drying  chamber, 
which  still  adds  to  economical  working. 
3.  The  drying  chamber  being  elevated  to  the  top 
of  the  Stove  jii'ovides  for  a great  improvement  in 
the  discharge  arrangement,  which  is  now  3 feet  above 
the  floor  level. 
The  drying  chamber  is.  fitted  with  4 slow  moving 
drying  surfaces,  the  chains  carrying  these  having 
motion  imparted  to  them  one  independent  of  the 
other ; so  that  each  of  these  having  the  strain  of 
only  one  travelling  web  on  it  will  run  for  years 
without  any  special  attention.  A slow  moving  short 
feed  travelling  web  is  provided  for  the  attendant  to 
scatter  the  leaf  on.  The  travelling  webs  can  have 
5 different  speeds  imparted  to  them,  and  the  velocity 
of  the  air  can  be  controlled  for  drying  heavy  and 
light  teas. 
We  have  no  doubt  that  very  considerable  inter- 
e.st  will  be  taken  iu  Ceylon  in  tliis  new'  machine, 
by  tlic  owner.s  of  estates  who  require  an  Auto- 
matic Dryer,  and  yet  c.annot  aflbrd  any  of  the 
larger  ones.  Tlie  manufacturers  of  the  machine.s 
are  Me.ssrs.  Marshall  Sori.s  & Co.,  Ld.,  Gains- 
l)orough. 
COFFEE  PRODUCTION  AND  COSUMPTION. 
'To  a Ceylon  j)lanter  who  is  specially  interc.sted 
in  ‘'Collee”  wo  are  indebted  for  the  following 
interesting  information  and  e.stiniates  in  refer- 
ence to  the  future  i)roduction  and  consumption 
of  our  old  staple.  The  figures  and  progaostica- 
