764 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  FMay  i,  1897 
MICA. 
The  Mica  Manufacturinj:  Company,  Limited, 
has  been  formed  with  a capital  of  £80,000  in 
shares  of  £1  each,  to  eqnire  all  the  mineral  riglits 
of  the  Lake  Girard  Group  of  Mica  properties, 
comprising  about  1,700  acres,  situated  in  the 
provinces  of  Ontario  and  Quebec,  Canada.  There 
has  been  spent  about  £70,000  in  selecting,  acquir- 
ing, opening  up  the  properties,  and  esbal)lislnng 
the  business,  and  there  has  been  sold,  either  in 
rough  or  prepared  form,  mica  to  the  value  of 
£40,000.  The  purchase  price  has  been  fixed  at 
£63,000,  of  which  £3,000  is  payable  iu  cash,  and 
the  balance  in  shares,  or  partly  in  shares  and 
partly  in  cash,  leaving  17,000  shares  available  for 
issue  for  the  provision  of  working  ca[iital. — Indian 
Planters'  Gazette,  March  27. 

THE  KESULT  OF  THE  DlSAPPEAKAIsCE 
OF  FORESTS  IN  TRINIDAD. 
It  is  pointed  out  in  the  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous 
Information  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens,  Trinidad, 
that  the  rainfall  for  that  island  is  slowly  but  surely 
decreasing.  The  average  rainfall  for  the  decade 
1862  71  was  C6'71.‘i  inches  ; for  the  next  decade  (1872- 
81)  it  was  65'9'J3,  and  for  the  third  decade  (1882- 
91)  it  was  65  037.  The  decrease  indicated  by  the 
first  and  third  values  is  1-678  inches  or  2 51  per 
cent  during  the  thirty  years  from  1862  to  1891. 
Presuming  that  the  same  rate  of  decrease  runs  on 
for  the  next  sixty  years,  Trinidad  will  then  suffer 
from  a rainfall  diminished  by  about  8 inches.  Mr. 
Hart  points  out  that  a rainfall  decreasing  at  such 
a rate  is  alarming;  and  if  the  inference  is  carried 
on,  it  follows  within  that,  a measurable  distance  of 
time  Trinidad  must  become  an  arid  desert  as  barren 
as  the  Great  Sahara.  The  cause  of  the  decrease  in 
said  to  be  the  disappearance  of  the  forests. — 
Nature. 
[We  doubt  the  inference  altogether;  perhaps  the 
next  30  years  may  prove  the  “ wet  ” cycle  for 
Trinidad.  Forests  in  Ceylon  have  been  far  more 
cleared  than  in  Trinidad  vvith  no  faliing-off  in  total 
rain. — Ed.  2’.A.\ 
VARIOUS  PLANTING  NOTES. 
Progress  in  Tea.— Apart  from  the  large 
cleariu‘'S  in  the  Balangoda  district  of  Messrs. 
Finlay,"  Muir  & Co.  (1,000  acres),  Mr.  Leaf  (.300 
acres)  and  others,  it  is  said  that  tliere  are  2,000 
acres  ready  to  plant  in  the  Kelani  Valley  this 
Castili.oa  Elastica  in  Trinidad.— Mr.  J.  H. 
Hart,  F.L.S.  Superintendent  of  the  Botanic 
Gardens  at  Triniclad,  writes;— “We  have  raised 
and  sold  some  10,000  Castilloa  this  year,  and  we 
have  a plantation  in  Tobago,  and  one  here 
ready  for  nleeding.”— ivew  Bulletin. 
A Southern  planter  from  Wynaad,  writing 
about  Mr.  James  Ochterlony,  and  bis  command 
of  capital,  says;— “ The  .standing  monument  of 
enterprise  is  the  grand  old  Ochterlony  V alley 
with  its  thousands  of  acres  of  coffee,  tea  and 
cinchona.”  The  well  known  standing  monument 
of  another  Ochterlony  in  Calcutta  is  a high 
tower — consi-lerably  less  useful  ! — Madras  limes, 
April  9.  ™ »i 
A Well-known  Foochow  Tea  Planter,  Mr. 
Sing  Put,  has  lately  been  travelling  through 
Ceylon,  garnering  up-to-date  information  about 
tea  growing,  picking,  and  curing.  The  tea 
industry  in  the  Foochow  country  has  been  seriously 
affected  during  the  past  few  years  by  the  en- 
terprise of  the  Ceylon  and  Assam  jilanters,  and 
the  Chinese  are  now  ajiparently  trying  to  pull 
themselves  together  to  make  headway  again, — 
London  Echo,  March  IS. 
The  Tea  Chop. — There  .seems  an  unusual  area 
of  tea  pruned  (lightly)  this  season  upcountry ; 
but  the  recent  alternate  showers  and  great  heat 
will  bring  on  all  such  very  quickly,  and.  indeed, 
jilanters  generally  will  be  very  busy  with  “flush” 
during  A))iil.  We  hear  the  old  estates  of  the 
Gallaha  Company  in  Nilambe  and  Hantane  very 
highly  spoken  of,  by  impartial  authorities,  for  their 
line  cover  and  jat  of  tea  as  well  as  the  good  crops 
promised.  Gallaha  Factory  is  one  of  the  largest 
and  most  complete  in  the  island. 
The  Rice  Crop  Pfo.spect.s  in  the  14  chief  rice- 
producing  districts  of  Lower  Burma  is  as  fol- 
lows ; — The  area  under  crop  has  decreased  by 
10,408  acres  from  the  area  reported  last  month. 
The  area  reported  from  Akyab  is  less  by  31,154 
acres  tlian  that  of  last  month,  while  the  area  in 
Thaton  has  increased  by  38,078  acres,  and  there 
are  small  changes  in  several  districts.  The  anna 
estimate  in  Prome  has  been  raised  to  14i  annas  ; 
in  other  districts  the  estimates  are  unchanged. 
The  estimate  of  the  exportable  surplus  is  the 
ame  as  that  of  last  month. — M.  Mail,  April  7. 
Kapok  has  uot  been  received  in  this  country  on  a 
very  large  scale.  It  is  not,  however,  quite  unknown 
here.  The  following  particulars  have  been  received 
from  a well-known  firm  in  the  City  : — Messrs.  Ide 
and  Christie  to  Royal  G.irdens,  Kew,  72,  Mark  Lane, 
Loudon,  E.  C.,  September  28,  t896.  Sir,  In  reply 
to  your  letter  of  the  24th  instant.  Kapok  is  coming 
here  regularly  to  the  extent  of  100  bales  a month 
from  India  and  Ceylon.  Today’s  value  is  2id.  to 
4d.  per  lb.  The  trade  is  not  large,  but  may  grow. 
Yours,  &c.  (Signed)  Ide  and  Christie.  Dr.  Moiris, 
c E.G.,  Assistant  Director,  Royal  Gardens,  Kew. — Keiu 
Bulletin 
“ Coppee  Growing  ” — is  the  subject  of  a brief 
paper  in  tbe  Agricultural  Gazette  of  New  South 
Wales  by  an  old  Ceylon  planter,  Mr.  C.  Skelton. 
Mr.  Stelton  was  pleased  with  a sample  of  coffee 
grown  on  tbe  Clarence  river  ; but  said  it  would 
not  pay  unless  6 cwt.  an  acre  could  be  got  and 
even  then  be  dreaded  frosts.  He  gives  practical 
advice  to  intending  iilanters,  and  names  “ John 
^\'alker  r'e  Co.”  as  the  iirm  to  supjily  all  neces- 
sary machinery. — In  Northern  Queensland,  rather 
than  in  New  South  Wale.s,  we  should  expect  to 
find  a suitable  region  for  coffee. 
African  Coffee. — Of  late  years  the  produc- 
tion of  coffee  in  British  Central  Africa  has  con- 
siderably increased.  In  1891,  the  fir.-t  few  sacks 
were  sent  to  the  London  market,  and  favourably 
reported  on.  In  1895,  nearly  170  tons  were  ex- 
ported, last  year  tlie  total  rose  to  300  tons, 
and  this  year  it  is  expected  that  there  will  be 
at  least  600  tons.  It  is  estimated  that  at  the 
end  of  the  century  the  export  of  coffee  from  the 
Shire  highlands  will  amount  to  2,000  tons,  and 
the  planters  are  agitating  for  the  construction 
of  a railway  from  Chiromo  to  BlanWre,  in  order 
to  obviate  the  present  difficulties  oi  transport. — 
Daily  Chronicle,  March  16. 
C.4CAO  Dlsease. — We  are  pleased  to  learn  from 
Mr.  R.  S.  Fraser  of  Warriapolla  that  the  precaution 
of  sending  diseased  jiarts  of  the  attacked 
cacao  trees  in  advance  to  high  fungoid  autho- 
rities is  not  to  be  lost  sight  of  The  Director 
-of  Botanic  Gardens  will  see  to  this  if  he  has 
not  already  done  so,  and  doubtless  on  the  re- 
sulting re])ort,  wiil  depend  the  decision  as  to  a 
CryptDgamist  or  other  specialist  coming  out  to 
Ceylon.  It  is  very  mysterious  at  present  how 
the  ‘ red”  cacao  suffers — decaying  ns  individuals 
or  in  clumps;  while  the  extraordinarj'  thing  is 
that  a diseased  tree  if  cut  at  the  neck,  very  quickly 
throws  up  perfectly  healthy  shoots,  ' 
