AGRICULTURIST. 
April  i,  1896.J  THE  TROPICAL 
ri5 
Con'c^:pcndon  co. 
To  the  Editor. 
GUANO  FOR  COCONUTS. 
Dear  Sir, — Can  any  of  your  readers  inform  me 
whether  guano  is  good  for  coconut  trees,  and  how 
much  per  tree  should  be  applied  ? It  seems  to  me 
it  might  be  useful  on  distant  parts  of  an  estate, 
where  bulky  manure  could  not  be  so  conveniently 
applied. — Yours  truly,  PROPRIETOR. 
YIELD  OF  CACAO  PER  ACRE. 
41  Eastcheap,  London  E.C.,  19th  Feb.  1896. 
Sir, — Your  correspondent  A.  v.  D.  P.  of  the  13th 
December  states,  that  an  African  estate  of  300  acres 
yields  191  cwt.  of  cacao  per  acre  ; allow  me  to  inform 
him  that  in  Grenada,  West  Indies,  there  is  an  estate 
which  yields  that  quantity  stated  ; but  of  course  it  is 
highly  manured  ; wiiereas  the  African  estate  is  virgin 
soil,  hence  the  large  return. — Yours  truly,  A.  G. 
CEYLON  AND  AFRICA. 
Dear  Sir, — Agriculturists  and  others  in  Ceylon, 
ought  to  be  most  thankful  that  we  are  spared 
any  such  similar  visitation  as  that  referred  to 
in  the  appended  extract  from  a letter  recently 
received  from  South  Africa.  I wonder  if  the 
introduction  of  the  blood-sucker,  chameleon  and 
other  of  the  lizard  tribe,  in  LARGE  numbers, 
■would  be  beneticial  in  the  way  of  keejiug  the 
locust  pest  in  check.  — Yours  faithfully,  E.h  .T. 
Extract. 
“ The  plague  of  locusts  in  this  part  of  the  world, 
Natal,  is  becoming  most  serious ! On  this  estate 
alone  out  of  a plot  of  600  acres  we  have  lately  dug 
up  over  a ton  and  a half  of  locusts’  eggs.  They 
lay  in  cocoons— each  cocoon  contains  on  an  average 
eighty  eggs,  and  5.50  cocoons  go  to  11b.,  so  for  a 
ton  and  a half  we  destroyed  the  small  number  of 
147  840,000  eggs — this  is  only  a part  of  the  destruc- 
tion carried  ont  all  over  the  Colony,  and  still 
immense  quantities  are  left  to  hatch  and  carry  de- 
struction to  vegetation  wherever  they  appear.  Wise 
and  very  stringent  measures  are  however  being 
taken  by  Government  for  the  eradication  of  the 
Can  the  insects  referred  to  be  descendants 
of  the  Mosaic  plague  ? 
TEA  CHESTS  : THE  ADULTERATION  OF 
COFFEE. 
March,  4. 
gjjj When  I sent  you  the  information  about  the 
self-opening  tins  for  Tea,  I did  not  know  so  much 
about  the  subject,  as  I do  now,  and  I would  like  to 
explain  to  your  readers  some  of  the  points. 
' I stated  that  the  lids  were  made  perhaps  best  in 
this  country  and  shipped  out,  but  I did  not  say  that 
as  soon  as  the  patent  had  expired  the  rims  to  fit 
the  lid  were  also  run  out  of  tin.  Now  the  point  is 
this  that  the  lid  and  a small  rim  can  be  shipped 
out  'as  they  fit  one  another,  and  this  small  rim  can 
be  most  easily  soldered  on  to  the  flat  sheet  of  tin, 
which  would  be  at  the  top  of  the  Tea  chest ; there- 
fore vou  will  have  an  air-tight  joint. 
Another  point  which  had  not  occurred  to  me  was 
that  in  making  some  of  these  tea  chests  in  India, 
by  placino  four  tin  boxes  in  close  position  to  one 
another,  the  packages  c.in  bo  made  to  hold  up  to  1501b. 
of  tea  and  only  one  chest  is  required  (of  wood); 
hence  there  is  a very  great  saving  and  beyond  this 
the  tea  is  all  packed  in  to  a uniform  size,  veiy 
lurhtlv  it  arrives  homo,  and  the  Customs  at  once  see 
timt  it  13  carefully  weiglied.  They  tare  one  package 
90 
and  by  this  means  get  to  know  the  exact  weight  of 
the  tin  and  the  lid,  therefore  if  they  scale  a few  of 
these  unopened  tins  they  have  a perfect  record  of 
the  weiglit  without  opening,  taring,  bulking,  or  any- 
thing else. 
The  object  of  putting  the  name  of  the  estate  on  the  tea 
chests  is  for  advertisement.  This  advertisement  have 
been  handed  down  by  the  Chinese  and  in  China  the  na- 
tives used  to  buy  the  tea  because  they  knew  the  name  or 
brand  or  mark  of  the  estate  or  packer.  These  chests 
from  Ceylon  now  come  into  the  hands  of  the  grocers, 
and  also  into  the  h inds  of  the  large  stores  here. 
These  people  find  it  adv  lutageous  to  order  homo 
from  Ceylon  so  many  chests  of  tea  and  they  send 
out  a sample  to  the  Ceylon  garden  asking  at  what 
price  they  can  be  supplied  with  a certain  tea.  The 
Ceylon  garden,  seeing  this  order  coming  along,  puts 
on  a profit,  k lowing  that  it  will  be  saved  all  its 
expenses,  and  stipulates  for  cash  being  paid  through 
the  Bank,  hence  the  planter  who  has  been  fortunate 
in  having  his  tea  selected  gets  a considerable  ad- 
vantage. This  trade  has  commenced  and  is  rapidly 
extending. 
There  is  one  other  point  which  you  will  find 
crop  up  very  shortly,  and  that  is,  the  Legislature 
are  about  to  put  in  force  the  question  of  “ adulter. 
ation|  of  coffee.”  This  has  been  brought  before  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  of  London  and  in  the  pra. 
senoe  of  some  of  the  members  of  the  Committee 
of  the  Chemical  Trade  Section,  at  which  analytical 
chemists  attend.  It  was  argued  and  admitted  that 
the  producer  of  milk  had  now  to  be  so  careful  that 
he  had  to  keep  cows  giving  an  excess  of  creim  to 
fetch  up  the  quality  of  milk  of  any  cow  that  yielded 
quantity  without  quality. 
The  analytical  chemists  were  next  asked  whether 
it  was  true  that  they  were  well  aware  that  in  very 
few  instances  could  pure  coffee  be  obtained  when  a 
cup  of  coffee  was  asked  for  in  any  restaurant,  cafe 
or  hotel,  or  railway  bar.  They  were  further  asked 
if  they  did  not  consider  that  it  was  unfair  to  attack 
the  producer  of  milk  and  at  the  same  time  allow 
the  vendor  of  the  coffee  to  put  any  muck  and  filth 
into  it  and  call  it  “Coffee.”  They  admitted  that 
the  state  of  the  law  was  such  that  it  ought  to  be 
altered  and  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  is  the  minis- 
ter in  charge  of  this  department,  who  will  at  once 
put  the  law  in  motion.  It  is  thought  that  if  this 
is  properly  c.irried  out  it  will  immensely  increase 
the  consumption  of  real  coffee  because  the  people 
who  ask  for  a cup  of  coffee  dread  what  they  may 
get  served  out  to  them. — Yours  truly, 
THOS.  CHRISTY. 
The  Production  of  the  Originals  of  Tele- 
GRAMS. — At  the  Appeal  Court  tod.iy,  Mr.  Advocate 
Jayawardene  on  behalf  of  the  complainant  in  a 
Police  Court  case  from  Avisawella  moved  for  a 
order  on  the  Postmaster-General  under  section  70  of 
the  Criminal  Procedure  Code  to  deliver  to  the 
Police  Magistrate  of  Avisawella  the  original  of  a 
telegram  for  the  purposes  of  being  put  in  evidence. 
Mr.  .Jayawardene  tendered  an  affidavit  from  his 
client  and  stated  that  the  Magistrate  of  Avisawella 
had  issued  summons  on  the  Postmaster-General  to 
produce  the  original  of  the  telegram,  when  the  latter 
referred  the  Magistrate  to  section  70  or  the  Criminal 
Procedure  Code.  The  complainant  was  one  Paul 
Jacolyn,  the  Recordkeeper  of  the  Avisawella  Courts, 
who  charged  the  accused  with  having  given  false  in- 
formation to  the  Magistrate  of  that  Court.  The  false 
information  consisted  of  the  following  telegram  re- 
ceived by  the  Magistrate  from  the  accused : — “ Fur- 
nished sureties,  R600.  Did  not  take  bail.  Others 
bailed  Rl  to  Paul  aud  they  released.”  The  mean- 
ing of  which  was  that  the  Recordkeeper  received  a 
bribe  of  Rl  from  each  of  the  other  accused  and 
enlarged  them  on  bail.  After  heaving  Mr.  Jaya- 
wardene, who  read  the  cjiuplaint's  affidavit,  Ilis 
Lordship  Mr.  Justice  Withers  made  order  directing 
tlie  Postmaster  General  to  cir.so  the  telegram  to  be 
delivered  to  the  Magistrate  of  Avisawcl.a  for  the 
puqiose  of  that  officer  iiiveitigatiug  the  charge  pre- 
ferred by  tho  complainant  against  the  author  of  the 
alleged  telegram.— Ijooal  “ Examiner,”  April  2. 
