176 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
[Sept,  i,  1896. 
they  continue  to  manufacture  the  article  in  the  crude 
and  filthy  way  to  which  they  are  wedded  with  char- 
acteristic obstinacy. 
And  here  we  would  venture  to  make  a sugges- 
tion, promising  that  our  Indian  planters  will  join 
heartily  in  the  Australian  and  American  cnmade, 
so  pluckily  carried  on  by  their  confreres  in  Ceylon. 
The  continent  of  Europe  is  practically  untouched, 
and  vet  there  are  many  little  colonies  of  English- 
men ' dotted  all  over  it,  which  should  bo  moved 
to  help  in  the  enterprise  by  precept  and  example. 
Tea  is  so  easily  brewed  as  compared  to  coffee,  and, 
if  it  were  made  up  into  sealed  packets  containing 
quantities  according  to  the  weights  and  measures 
of  the  country,  these  would  sell  like  “ hot  cakes,” 
especially  if  in  each  packet  there  were  enclosed  a 
litde  tract  with  coloured  illustrations  of  the  diff- 
erence between  the  Chinese  manufacture  by  hands 
and  feet,  and  the  Indian  manufacture  by  m lohinery 
alone. 
The  use  of  machines  begins  with  the  tree  felling 
and  conversion  into  logs  for  buildings,  battens  for 
chests  or  mere  firewood.  Then  comes  Jobens’s  Trans- 
planter for  moving  seedlings  with  balls  of  tiieir  own 
earth  from  the  nurseries  to  the  field.  A straight 
digging  fork  is  preferable  to  the  hoe  or  1\' d lU  for 
cultivating.  Mr.  Christison  mentions  the  c...e  of  an 
estate  rejoicing  a a head  of  water  of  1,175  feet  at 
the  lowest  point,  which  is  only  used  for  watering, 
drinking  and  are  extinguishing  purposes,  with  a groat 
length  of  pipes  and  hose,  and  there  must  be  many 
such  places.  The  plucking  is  all  done  by  hand,  but 
the  “ operations  of  tea  manufacture  are  now  per- 
formed by  machinery  in  all  factories  of  any  importance. 
Steam  is  the  commonest  motor,  but  water-power  (mainly 
by  turbine)  is  also  in  use.  In  the  case  of  the  Tukyar 
Company,  the  turbine  is  situated  in  the  ravine 
about  two-thirds  of  a mile  from  and  1,500  feet  below 
the  level  of  the  factory,  the  power  being  trans- 
mitted to  the  machinery  there  by  means  of  wire 
rope  travelling  upon  pulleys  supported  on  standards 
placed  at  suitable  distances  apart.  The  district 
owes  the  conception  and  accomplishinent  of  this 
bold  and  arduous  undertaking  to  the  ingenious,  in- 
defatigable, and  praise-worthy  efforts  of  the  late  Mr. 
Thonxas  E.  Curtis,  of  Tukvar,  a well-known  and 
most  able  tea  planter.  On  another  hill  garden, 
electricity  has  for  some  time  been  employed,  the 
turbine  and  generaiing  apparatus  being  similarly 
placed  beside  the  torrent  far  below  and  distant  from 
the  factory  and  machinery  to  be  driven.  For  this 
laudable  pioneer  object-lesson  in  regard  to  the  motor, 
which  I believe  to  be  specially  suited  and  destined 
to  be  the  power  of  the  future  for  Darjeeling,  we 
are  indebted  to  the  late  much-lamented  Mr.  William 
Lloyd.”  And  again  we  say  there  must  be  many  such 
places  where  water  power  could  be  utilised  to 
advantage.  , , . . , 
After  the  leaf  has  been  weighed  it  is  withered 
on  broad  shelves  of  wire  mesh,  Hessian  cloth  or 
bamboo  netting,  over  which  a current  of  dried  air  is 
sent  by  means  of  ventilating  fans.  Then  comes  roll- 
ing by  machinery  of  which  there  is  an  infinite 
variety.  Mr.  Christison  swears  by  Jackson’s  “ Rapid,” 
which,  he  says,  does  the  work  of  70  men  to  great 
perfection.  ” By  an  ingenious  arrangement  of 
m-anks,  &c.,  an  eccentric  motion  with  elastic  pres- 
sure (re.sembling  that  of  the  old  hand  rolling)  is 
produced  between  a table  and  a box  above  which 
usually  contains  as  much  as  300  lb.  of  withered 
leaf  at  time.  This  upper  plate  or  rolling  box  is 
generally  of  metal  lined  with  wood,  but  also  of 
granite  or  marble  for  greater  coolness.  The  lower 
rolling  surface  or  table  is  usually  of  wood,  but  is 
sometimes  granite  or  marble-faced.  This  machine 
is  beautiful  though  simple  in  movement,  and  is  a 
roller  as  near  perfection  as  can  well  be  conceived  ” 
For  sifting,  dis-entangling  the  balls  and  aerating  the 
rolled  leaf,  machines  are  also  specially  designed, 
” the  withered  leaf  is  fed  into  the  hopper  of  the 
roller  from  the  loft  above  by  tneans  of  a canvas 
.shoot,  and  the  rolled  leaf  is  discharged  through  a 
trap  underneath  into  a trolly  which  conveys  it  to 
and  from  the  sifter,  and  finally  to  the  fermenting 
room  ” In  this  room  a refrigerating  apparatus 
would  be  useful,  as  the  best  quality  of  tea  is  made 
in  the  coM  season  when  the  oxidation  occupies  an 
unusually  long  time.  Then  come  into  action  the 
drying-machines  ; of  these  also  there  are  a great 
number  of  different  kinds.  We  gave  the  essentials 
of  a good  machine,  not  long  ago,  in  describing 
Gibb’s.* 
The  important  process  of  classification  is  also  done 
by  machinery  aided  by  some  “ light  finishing 
touches,  hardly  amounting  to  handling  in  any 
degree  ” given  by  “ a few  bright,  tidy  Nepali  girls. 
Then,  after  a certain  number  of  chests  full  have 
accumulated,  comes  the  packing.  Machine-made 
boxes  are  most  uniform  in  tare  and  the  machine- 
packing of  tea  obviates  “ trampling,  unequal  pres- 
sure, breakage  and  discoloration.”  The  Davidsou- 
Maguire  patent  packing  machine  is  coming  into  use 
on  the  garden  “ and  the  sooner  it  is  also  univer- 
sally adopted  in  the  London  w'arehouses,  the  better, 
not  only  for  the  above  reason,  but  to  supply  the 
only  missing  link  in  the  entire  circle  of  machine 
manufacture.”  Wooden  chests,  although  the  material 
of  which  they  are  made  has  been  well  seasoned, 
will  lose  in  weight  during  a long  journey  and 
voyage,  thus  causing  confusion  at  its  destination, 
but,  if  the  chests  were  haskinised  or  vulcanised  this 
would  not  happen,  or  if  they  were  made  of  tin  there 
would  be  no  danger  of  leakage  or  damage  by  water. 
The  tea  now  falls  into  human  hands  again,  for  of 
necessity  it  has  to  be  carried  by  coolies  to  the 
Railway  Station  or  steamer.  ‘‘Darjeeling  tea  is  all 
carried  by  the  hardy  hill-men  up  the  steep  moun- 
tain roads  to  the  nearest  railway  station  on  the  w'ay 
to  market.  It  is  no  unusual  day’s  work  for  a coolie 
to  carry  a tea  chest  weighing  110  to  130  lb.  a dis- 
tance of  five  or  six  miles,  making,  at  the  same  time 
an  assent  of  from  2,500  to  3,500  feet  in  sheer  verti- 
cal elevation.” 
We  have  all  heard  the  tradition  of  the  Bhooteah 
who  carried  a grand  piano  along  50  miles  and  up 
7,000  feet  to  Darjeeling.  We  know  that  “in  the 
prosecution  of  their  own  trade,  or  on  domestic 
affairs,  they  frequently  undertake  long,  arduous 
journeys  over  ridges  and  along  and  across  hot 
valleys,  varying  many  thousands  of  feet  in  eleva- 
tion, occupying  many  days  on  end,  carring  heavy 
loads  of  from  150  lb.  to  200  lb.  and  over,  and 
in  addition  their  own  food  and  bedding  most 
cheerfully  lighting  a fire,  cooking  and  eating  their 
scanty  meal,  and  going  to  sleep  by  the  wayside.” 
We  have,  we  hope,  shown  sufficiently  clearly  that 
tea-cultivation  if  cai-ried  on  with  ordinary  common 
sense,  in  the  right  place  and  with  the  right  men  to 
work  it,  cannot  fail  of  success,  and  as  Mr.  Christi- 
son truly  concludes  “investors  in  well-equipped  con- 
cerns have,  in  these  days  of  general  agricultural  de- 
pression, landed  security  of  really  the  very  safest 
class,  from  the  fact  of  the  tea  harvest  being  over 
eight  months  annually.  This  secures  the  crop  against 
the  vicissitudes  of  season,  in  the  form  of  a month  or 
even  two  of  adverse  weather  at  any  stage.  We  have 
lately  given  an  abstract  of  the  dividends  made  by  tea- 
companies,*  and  we  hope  to  revert  to  this  subject 
again  shortly. — Indian  and  Eastern  Engineer,  Aug.  1. 
A NEW  INSECTICIDE. 
The  higlily  poisonous  nature  of  acetylene  has 
.suggested  to  M.  Chuard  the  possibility  of  em- 
ploying carbide  of  calcium  as  an  insecticide  tor 
agricultural  jmrposes.  M.  Chuard  proposes  to  try 
thorouglily  mixing  the  carbide  with  earth,  so 
that  under  the  inlluence  of  moisture  acetylene 
would  be  slowly  given  oil’  at  the  roots  of  i)lants, 
thus  preserving  them  from  attack.  At  the  same 
time,  the  bye-products,  consisting  of  chalk  and  a 
little  ammonia,  wouM  have  .a  beneficial  effect  on 
the  soil.  It  is  proposed  to  try  1 his  method  against 
])hylloxera.  Whether  this  would  succeed  equally 
well  in  all  weather.s,  wet  oi  dry,  is  quite  .another 
(|uestion. — Nature. 
* January  1896,  p.  21. 
