THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec. I, 1897 . 
398 
continue that policy. The climate and soil of the 
Malay States are suitable to most tropical products 
and, when a successlul experiment has been made, 
imitators are never wanting. It is probable that, in 
the near future, there will be a great _ demand ior 
rubber, and while many valuable species are indi- 
genous here, amongst them the Jim da^iica, which 
grows like a weed, others have been introduced from 
South America, and shewn to do well. That is one 
of the benefits conferred on the country bj' Sir Hugh 
Low. Excellent tea has been grown and manu- 
factured in Perak, Arabian coffee of a high class has 
been produced on the mountains, and, when a cart- 
road has been carried into the highlands that divide 
Perak from Pahang it is probable that other paying 
forma of agriculture will be introduced. 
SIROCCO TEA MACHINERY. 
V>^e have received front Me&sr.s. Davidson & Co. 
of the Sirocco Engineering Works, Beltast, an 
illustrated catalogue of their speciad tea machinery 
and also a letter upon (he subject. Tlie 
catalogue is no dry record of the appliances 
lor preparing tea, but an interesting and 
well iirinted hand-book, descriptive of the 
Sirocco works, with jiortraits of the heads of the 
various departments. Amongst these are tlio.se 
of Mr. F. G. Maguire, chief visiting engineer of 
the Colombo branch and IMr. H. M. Harris, 
formerly of Ceylon, who is now commercial 
manager of the Calcutta branch. We commend 
the pamphlet to the attention of anyone in- 
terested in tea. 
PLANTING AND PRODUCE NOTES. 
The West Indies and Tea Cultiv.ition. — In look- 
ing through the report of the West India Royal Cour- 
missiotier and the subsidiary report by Mr. D. Morris, 
assistant direator of the Royal Gardens, Kew, we 
find no mentioir of any suggestion that West India 
planter.^ should turn their attention to tea cultiva- 
tion. There are srrggestions made as to the develop- 
ment of subsidiary rrrdustries other tharr sugar, but 
nothing is said aborrt tea. Coffee, tob.icco, and fruit 
cultivation are freely recommended, but, presumably, 
the Commissioner did not soe any prospects for tea 
cultivation either in the West India Islands or in 
British Guiana. 
The Use of the BjInana. — No doubt its cultiva- 
tion will be overdone, but at present there is a keen 
demand for bananas in the United States, where the 
baked fruit is being extolled in America as the ideal 
food both for the nervous, the anasmic, and the brain 
worker. Bananas, it will be remembered, occupied a 
high place in the diet of the late Sir I.saac Holden, 
and without going so far as to say they are a panacea 
for all ills, it is asserted that their great power to 
sustain mental effort is recognised in India. — II. and 
C. Mail, Oct. 15. 
COCHIN Vs. CEYLON COPRA AND 
COCONUT OIL. ' 
(Answer to Circular.) 
One reason for Cochin oil fetching more than 
Ceylon oil is, that the process of manufacturing it 
is quite different in the former place from that 
of the latter. Cochin nuts are smaller than Ceylon 
nuts and the outturn of oil is rou, hly speaking 
about cwt. per candy for Cochin against cwt. 3 
for Ceylon. The Coconut area in Cochin is small 
as compared with Ceylon, and more care is taken 
there in the plucking and the drying of the nuts. 
Only ripe nuts are plucked and the kernel is cut 
into slices, and carefully dried in the sun. All 
unripe and bad nuts are removed and only the good 
clean white copra is manufactured into oil. This is 
the white oil of Cochin and it is used in some parts 
of India as a substitute for ghee. Mousoon-inade 
oil sometimes fetches the same price as white oil, 
if the quality is fine, but the objection to monsoon- 
made oil is, that it is, as a rule, eff the color in 
consequence of the damp we.ither rendering tie 
copra liable to get mouldy, but of course there 
ui-sy he some fine oil made duiii g the monsoon. 
Greater care in the plucking and drying of the nuts 
may be bestowed in Ceylon, but the area is too 
wide, and the climate will not permit of the proper 
drying of the nuts in the sun. Nuts are plucked 
anyhow or nohow hero, split into two and thrown 
to dry in ihe sun, aird if the weather is bad, all 
the kernels are put on a platform and smoked, which 
blackens the copra and imparts to it a smoky taste. 
The copra is then hurried off to the carts or boats 
to Colombo. Little or no trouble is token to separate 
the good copra from the bad nor the white from the 
black. All come to the mills and it is this produces 
the Ceylon oil. 
White oil, indeed is manufactured in Colombo, 
but the demand is limited and manufacturers 
do not keep a stock of it. It fetches about 
R20 per ton over ordinary good merchantable oil. 
A good deal of care is taken on some of the estates 
owned by weil-knowu Ceylon genliemen, and the 
copra from these properties always fetches quite 
R1 per candy over ordii ary quality. The best re- 
sult would be obtained in the Chilaw District. Copra 
is frequently brought into Colombo from Bafticaloa, 
The climate being dry there the shells get hard soon. 
It is lor this reason that the nut is broken the other 
way, from top to bottom, for, if the usual custom 
v/as followed, the shell would get “ splintered ” and 
damage the kernel. 
There is but little use, in my opinion, of either 
sending a Ceylon siqierintendent to Cochin to learn 
the method of manufacturing or in bringing over 
Cochiuese to teach the way how to do the work in 
Ceylon, so long as our climate is what it is. The 
Cochin men may lead in any thing but he cannot 
control the clerk of the weather. We have rain 
almost throughout the j'ear and the coconuts cannot 
be kept on the trees.* Tliey imist be plucked, and 
rain or no rain, the copra is made and quickly con- 
verted into cash ! Some years ago a film of mill- 
owners manufactured oil from selected copra brought 
from their own estates. This was superior to ordinary 
oil and always commanded in London about £1 per 
ton over the value of ordinary Ceylon, but this firm 
have now gone largely into the Desiccating line 
and have given up oilmaking. In this couneclioii' 
it must not be forgotten that copra from the Pacific. 
South Sea Islands, Australia aud other places fs- 
imported into Liverpool aud this competes to a large 
extent with our oil. In the sixties and seventies, 
during the existence of Armitage Brothers and C.. 
Shaud & Co., a very large business was done im 
Ceylon coconut oil, the contract being sometimes for 
1,000’s of tons at a time. The former firm who owned 
Mills at Mattacooly and Mutwal were very large 
charterers of sailing vessels, and some of the largest 
ships that ever loaded here were chartered by th'^em. 
The volume of business then was done direct with 
London, but now every thing is changed and the 
news telegraphed out that the stock of coconut oil was 
200 tons, the month’s landings 200 tons, and the 
deliveries 200 tons, points to what straits the business 
in coconut oil with Loudon has come to in 1897 
compared with what it was in 18C0-70. g, 
— 
The Austeaeian Salt Bush.— Professor Hilgard 
of the California State University says that the 
Australian Salt Bush can be grown successfully on 
arid and Jalkall lands ; that it I'cmoves from the 
soil large quantities of Sodium carbonate and 
Sodium chloride, the two most injurious alkaline 
salts. In soils, therefore, where the percentage of 
alkali is near the danger point they may be sensi- 
bly relieved by planting salt bush for several 
seasons. _ TUe yield is nearly equal to that of Alfalfa. 
— Scientific American Supplement. 
