392 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec. I, 1897. 
Government. Hitlierto there has ])een a difficulty 
in .securing suitable labour for this crop, but 
there is now a rebellion in the Phillippine.s and 
it i.s believed that one of the results of the 
troubles there will be that there will be in 
Borneo a large influx of rebels, who, under a 
free and settled government, with the certainty 
of fair wages, will soon settle down to regular 
work. It is hoped that in five years Borneo 
will be exporting Manilla hemp to the value of 
£1,000,000 sterling, and that in ten years the 
island will have virtually secured the trade now 
enjoyed by the Spanish colony. Another ad- 
vance will be made in 
RUBIiER CULTIVATION, 
In regard to the demand for which, there have 
been of late such rapid developments. Rubber 
is indigenous to North Borneo, the kind most 
commonly grown being Willoughbeia. There is 
already some exported and Mr. Pryer has secured 
twenty thousand seeds so that as soon as he 
lands steps will be taken to place an increased 
acreage under cultivation. Such are some of the 
anticipations Mr. Pryer has formed and our 
readers will join us in wishing him success in 
his enterprises. Mrs. Pryer was met at Colombo 
by Mrs. S. H. Dyer, of Kotagala, who is her 
cousin. 
^ 
FACTS ABOUT TEA SEED. 
{Contributed.'] 
To those w'ho have billets on seed gardens, 
as also to those whose gardens are purchasers, 
there is little mystery in the manipulation of 
the annual crop. But as I myself have been 
often asked how it is done, and others having, 
I presume, been in the same predicament, there 
are many to whom the “ history of the mystery” 
may possess some little interest. On the seed 
gardens the time and season comes round and 
passes aw.'iy without causing any undue bustle. 
We look upon it as a matter of course and get 
ready for the crop as others at the beginning 
of a’ tea season put their machinery and leaf 
houses in order. The matter is simplicity 
itself. 
About the middle of September the seed be- 
gins to fall, and previously to this we have 
cleared all the jungle from the foot of the 
bushes, so that picking it up may involve as 
little trouble as may be. As soon then as the first 
signs appear the children and some of the women 
are put on to grope for what they can get. 
At lirst this is little, but the seed ripening tlie 
night breeze of falling seed shakes down more and 
more until there is sufficient to justify the clean- 
ing preparations in view of the first challan ; 
so we spread the seed out in the sun and dowm 
beside it plant such of the garden labour force 
whose physical incapacity for arduous labour 
best fits them for the matter in hand. These 
strip off the outer skins and throw the 
cleaned seed into baskets Next day the cleaned 
seed is put little by little into a tub of w’ater. 
Such as floats is thrown aside and that from 
the bottom and floating in mid water is gathered 
up and spread on elialn'ies to dry. Some make a 
second quality of the mid-water seed, and keep it 
separate. Dried the seed is buried in layers in 
beds of clean dry sand heaped uii on a leaf house 
floor, ready for packing. The seed ripening still 
further artificial assistance is necessary to cause 
it to fall, so some able-bodied men are put on 
to give the trees a good shaking. This brings 
down a lot, and soon we are in the thick of our 
.season, cleaning, sorting and packing as last as 
we can. 
The packing requires a little care in its su- 
pervision. We here use tea chests cut in half, as 
we find, filled with half a maund of seed packed 
in charcoal, lidded, nailed down and bound with 
iron, the finished chest turns out just a maund. 
This is as much as the despatch service .allows. 
The mistri first cuts the boxes in half. The 
bottom half is then taken, and the bottom and 
all four sides lined with stout paper. Then a 
layer of charcoal is dropped in thick enough to 
bed a seed in. Ideas vary as to the best trans- 
porting medium. .Some use charcoal, othersohar 
coal mixed with sand or earth, others, again, light 
dry earth only. On the first layer of any of these 
seed is scattered as close together as may be but 
not lying double. This i-s covered with the pack- 
ing mixtuie and another sheet of paper laid down. 
Then the operation is repeated until the cfiest is 
full up, and a final sheet of pa])er is put down 
under the lid. 
The seed and charcoal or otherwise are weighed 
out for each box, and one or two seed taken out 
from each as a test to determine the percentage. 
Now in this testing much ditlerence of opinion is 
shown, and until a uniform method is agreed 
on it is as well in agreeing to a minimum per 
cent good, to know now this will be arrived at. 
This is the usual method. Take one hundred 
seed, and breaking the shells, split them open 
into the two natural halves. Then all absolutely 
bad is counted out in one row, so many as are 
“spotted” in the second, and the good seed is in 
the third. The bad is at once counted out. In the 
spotted two out of three are counted good, and 
these, plus the third good row, give the per- 
centage. This is a very fair method, and is 
usually accepted. The difference of opinion lies 
in the spotted seed. Some men testing will 
count out the absolutely bad as before and into 
this count all seed spotted near the germ. Those 
spotted away fro!ii the germ, on the other hand, 
being reckoned all good, there is not very much 
room on the surface of an opened seed, and 
the meanin:/ of the word “near” may be read 
differently as one is seller or buyer. It is a 
delicate matter. Others again— these being buyers 
— will split a seed into four lest any inperfections 
should remain hidden after a single cut. 
The boxes are hooped, marked and sent off 
by the quickest route. The price runs from 
sixty to two hundred rupees a maund, and a 
further charge of rupees three per chest is made 
for packing. The expenses of collecting it on 
the garden are small, so the profit is — fair. 
First, however, catch your seed.— TAe Planter, 
Oct. 9 th. 
Sierra Leone Coffee and Cotton. — One of the 
most interesting of the economic plants of Sierra 
Leone is the highland or native Coffee [Coffea 
stenophulla) which though discovered about a century 
ago by Afzelius, was not described until 1834, 
and was not introduced into this country until 
sixty years afterwards (1894). It was figured in the 
Botanical Magazine (t. 7475), and described more 
recently in the Kew Bulletin (1896, pp. 189-191). 
This coffee has been widely distributed from Kew, 
It has lately flowered in the West Indies, and is there 
regarded as likely to prove useful for cultivation in 
lowlands where the Arabian coffee will not grow. 
Another promising economic plant in Sierra Leone 
is the native cot'-on, probably Oossypium herbaceum, 
L. In order to supplement this an effort was made 
some years ago to introduce the cultivation of the 
Egyptian cotton in the colony. 
