760 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May 2, 1898. 
■which I discovered by mere aocident. Put your sugar 
(I mean the small quantities required for daily use) 
into bottles or other narrow-mouthed vessels, and 
use a common lime ivell squeezed in for a stopper and ants 
will never trouble it. — Demerara Gazette. 
To Prevent Ants from Getting on Wash-Stands 
AND Dressing Tables, (tc. — Rub chalk round the legs 
of these a little up from the floor, till the wood is 
quite covered with it, and the ants cannot walk over 
the chalk. It must be renewed every week or so. 
Another plan to prevent ants getting on the table, 
teapoy, bed, Ac., is to tie round the lower end of the 
leg or post athin slip of flannel dipped in castoroil — 
they will not pass over this ; or place the leg in pans 
of water. To secure boxes from their depredations, 
the best plan is to place them on glass bottles laid 
lengthways, and if kept free from dust, the ants can- 
not ascend. They Lave a great dislike to indigo, and 
will seldom touch cloth dyed in it or saturated in a 
solution of corrosive sublimate ; the proportion of 
one pound to four gallons of water is sufficient. They 
also dislike salt, which may be mixed up with the 
mud or gober that is sometimes spread over the 
floor or wall; though this is not an effectual remedy, 
it is as iVell occasionally to adopt it. 
■ To Destro'V Eed or Dlack Ants. — After having dis- 
e'ov'ered the aperture of their nests, surround it with 
Soft 'day formed into the shape of a funnel, and pour 
in boiling water. Where they are in the habit of in- 
festing a floor or room, lay down thin shoes of raw 
meat or liver, upon which the ants will soon congre- 
gate ; let a person go about with hot water in a basin, 
and throw in the meat as it is covered ; then shake it 
dry, and put it down again to collect more. 
A Recipe foe the Destruction of Insects, which, 
says the Buit-leir, if it be oue-half as efficacious as it 
is stated to be, will prove invaluable, and especially 
we may add in tropical countries, is published by 
the Journal. of- Chemistry. Hot Alum Water is the 
suggestion as an Insecticide. It will destroy red 
and black ants, cockroaches, spiders, chintz bugs, 
and all the cra'wling pests which infest our houses. 
“ Take 2 lb. of alum and dissolve it in three or lour 
quarts of boiling water, let it stand on the fire till 
the alum disappears, apply it with a brush, while 
nearly boiling hot, to every joint and crevice in your 
closets, bedsteads, pantry shelves, and the like. Brush 
the crevices in the floor of the skirting or mop boards, 
if you suspect that they harbour vermin. If, in 
whitewashing a ceiling, plenty of alum is added to the 
line, it will also serve to keep insects at a distance. 
Cockroaches will flee the paint which has been washed 
incool alumwatsr.” 
To Destroy Insects in Flower-pots, Grub, &c. — A 
plant grower of considerable experience tells us that 
a strong solution of copperas in soapsuds water is 
■^ery invigorating to ornamental shrubs and pear 
trees. It will also destroy the small grubs that infest 
the roots of pot-plants. Ammonia water, of the 
Strength of one teaspoonful of splints of ammonia to 
two quarters of water, is also a good remedy for the 
white grubs in pot plants, while it is very invigorating 
to the growth of the plants. 
“THE CREEPING OF CHUFFLES“ AND 
OTHER STORIES BY OSD. SLADE. 
A copy of this brochure — very neatly turned 
out in paper cover from the local “Times" press 
— reached us today with the complimeiit.s of the 
author. His ))urpo.se in the chief story which 
gives its name to the volume is to illustrate 
“ in narrative form, the kind of life which young 
men, coming out to learn Tea Planting, are so 
often unprepared for. But tliere, the purpose, if it 
has one, ends : and it is lioped that the.se ‘ yarns ’ 
concerning various phases of life and incident to 
he found in Ceylon, may be as interesting to 
tho.se who live among them, and to those wlio so 
imperfectly visit them, as to those whose business 
or pleasufe do not bring them so far East.” From 
the glance we have given over the “ Creeping of 
ChutHes” we think Mr. Slade h.as succeeded very 
well in his aim, while in his autobiography as well 
as in the succeeding stories he touches on phases 
of estate, village and native (Sinhalese as 
ivell as Tamil) life in a way that makes his 
pages both interesting and amusing to the 
general reader. The contents of tlie little book 
give a good idea of the treatment of his princi- 
pal subject: — 
contents. 
The Creeping of Chuffles. Page. 
Chapter 
I, 
Eastward Ho ! 
1 
Do 
II, 
Tlp-conntry .. 
9 
Do 
III, 
On the Estate 
17 
Do 
IV, 
First Day’s 'Work 
25 
Do 
V, 
After Four O'clock 
33 
Do 
VI, 
A Cholera Scare 
39 
Do 
VII, 
A Typical Sunday 
. 
60 
Do 
VIII, 
Work and a Respite 
67 
Do 
IX, 
Mount Lavinia 
61 
Do 
X, 
Love and a Billet 
DINGIRl’s LOVERS. 
•• 
66 
Part 
I, 
Love 
75 
Do 
n, 
Blarriage 
85 
Do 
III, 
Divorce 
93 
Mrs. Guthrie’s 
Version 
105 
Batchie ; The Story of a Dutch Planter 
in Ceylon . . . . . . qjg 
Again, the preface indicates the humour of the 
Writer and his style otherwise, very fairly ; 
PREFATORY FABLE. 
To those of my country-meu and women — and there 
must be many — whom the title of this little volume 
may tend to mystify, a word in season. 
‘ Creeping ! ’ What does ‘ creeping ’ mean ?— And 
thereby hangs a tale. 
There was once a Ceylon Planter who took upon 
himself to teach a certain young man from England 
the profession of tea-planting. Whether the work 
or the life, or both, suited this young ‘ blade ’ or 
not, I do not know— possibly not. But history re- 
lates that the planter s lady, seeing one day the new 
arrival lounging lazily along some estate road, ex- 
claimed of him “ There is that youth again, creep- 
ing— creeping along as if, &c., &c.,— So many 
young men have come out to Ceylon (in particular) 
to learn nothing, or merely for the ‘ fan of the thing, 
or because their parents dubbed them ‘ fit for no- 
thing else,’ or because the old country was ‘ too 
hot to hold ’em I ’ Everyone knew instances of the 
kind, and few of these ever did any work ; although 
their parents had paid a premium (often a heavy 
one) for the privilege of inflicting the Colony with 
their ‘ne’er-doweels.’ They should henceforth be 
called ‘ creepers.’— Time alters all things. 
Nowadays the name ‘ creeper ’ implies ‘ a young 
man being taught planting,’ and is a term almost ex- 
clusively applied to .those who ‘ learn, and do not earn.’ 
The truth of this story I will not vouch for : let 
it stand for a simple explanation of an ambiguous 
term. Author. Kegalle, Ceylon, 1898. 
INDIAN TEA IN FRANCE. 
TO THE EDITOR. 
Sir, — I have read with considerable interest your 
article upon this subject, and, as a resident for many 
years in France, should like to state my experience 
in this connection. Although I have no statistics in 
my possession, I can assure you that tea is now by 
no means a strange commodity in Paris, nor at the 
many places in the south of France, where English- 
speaking people moat do resort. Indeed, compara- 
tively large quantities are now landed at and dis- 
tributed from Marseilles, almost every week ; and 
the quality is all that can be desired, though prices 
are exorbitant. After making sure that the tea shall 
be sold at a moderate profit, the great difficulty is 
to educate the French servant how to brew it pro- 
perjyi and this is no small trouble even amongst 
