196 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[September i, 189;. 
MOKl!: LT’ON TIIK SUBJJiCT Ob’ JIAXA GRA.SS. 
Wo are glad at length to Icnrn that a very, 
large measure of sueoess has atteuded tliu es- 
peiimenta which have for so long been making 
at home with the mana grass which grows in 
suoh wild prolusion on the mountain “ patanas ” 
ol this island. Our anticipations proviouBly 
expressed in these columns seem to have 
been lor a very long time under a cloud 
oousequent upon repealed failures ol one kind 
and another, aud the news that these have now 
been replaoed by an, at all events partial, sueoess, 
wilt be weloome no doubt to all who have the 
interests of the colony at heart. 
Nevertheless we do not disguise from ourselves 
that muoh yet remains to bo aceomplishod, and 
probably many as yet unforeaeen dilHeullies remain 
to be ovotoonie, before we can indulge in the 
expectation of seeing our formerly expressed anti- 
eipationa realised. But at least we now know that 
mana grass pulp, when treated with 25 per cent of 
waste paper or ol old gunny bags or other eompara- 
lively valueless material of that oharaotor, oan be 
made into a stoat and solid board, which has one 
advantage over that made from wheat 
straw, inasmuch as it is without that amount 
of silica which tends to make straw board 
a brittle and intraotable material. We shonld have 
been glad to hear that onr London correspondent 
had seen tea boxes formed in the solid from mana 
grass pulp; but although he baa been promised 
that this can and shall be done, the required 
maobinery bad not when his last letter was written 
been completed. But he had seen two oyliodrical 
casks or packing cases of oonsiderable size made 
ol the mans grass board, and he reports that these 
were as strong and as solid us uould be desired. 
Very littla ingenuity, he feels assured, is requited 
to oompresB the pulp into the form of a box 
eomplete in itself in every respect save as regards 
the lid. 
We trust that this assurance may bo conflrined. 
Oylindrioal packages suoh us have already been 
made would tooupy too muoh space on shipboard to 
be likely to receive adoption by out planters, although 
in other respeots they would appear to be admirably 
suited for the package of tea. It oannot bo expected 
that the manufacture of jointless tea boxes couU 
be carried on at home with mana grass pulp. 
In the first plaoe, the freight homewards ol the 
taw material would be prohibitory, and in the 
second, that of the empty square boxes ouU 
wards would not be less so. If, therefore, suooess 
is in the future to attend the manufacture, 
it is certain that this must bo done looally, and 
in suoh positions as may ensure the cost ol 
transport ol the made boxes to estates being kept 
as low as may be ptaolioable. As at present 
foreshadowed, it wouln appear that the Universal 
Barrel Company of Boxmoor which has conduoted 
the latest experiments has it in contemplation to 
obtain from the Stanloy-Wrightsou Syndicate its 
patent rights as regards Ceylon, and possibly as 
regards other oountries in which mana grass 
may be found in any abundance. Those secured, 
a factory coutaining the required maobinery would 
be erected out here and started with a properly 
qualified man in charge. We can do no more to 
aid in the acoomplishment of this when the time 
comes for doing so— shonld this arrive — than to 
suggest the sites the most eligible for suoh a 
factory. Water power it must ol course have t 
and it should be so situated that it can possess 
its own siding to the railway. It will further be a 
sine qua non that it be in tolerable proximity to 
lands growing mana grass in abundance, bbguld 
any of our readers be able to ruggest sites fulllUing 
these several conditions, we shall take care that 
their suggestions are made known in the proper 
quarter at home, to which they would doubtless 
prove very valuable. 
It may be a question whether, after a time, it 
would not bo necessary to oultivatn fields of 
mans grass ; and we should think this could bo 
easily and cheaply done, on the va,st expanses of 
patana which strotoli in all directions from Nuwara 
Bliya and which exist in other parts of the mountain 
region, on tho western and eastern sides alike. 
TEA-DIlINRLVa.— A W.UtXlXU TO MOTlIEUa. 
Br Dn. Andubw Hobs, Molono. 
i.An exaggerated and misleading article. Tea is, 
on tho whole, the best and certainly the most 
easily pro} Rred of the non-aleoholio stimulants. 
Bnt, of course, tbete can be excess oven in tea 
drinking, and there may occur ocoasional oases 
where constitutional pccnliarities oontra-indioato 
its use.— Ed. T . A.] 
Tbo following remarkable case is pablishod with a 
view of imtting parents and heads of families on their 
guard as to the evil effects arising from I he use of 
strong tea ^drinking— iu other words, the too common 
and pernioioas custom of allowing young children to 
drink tea at meal time. Borne few months back I was 
consulted about tho health tf a young boy between 5 
and 6 years of age belcnging to Mr. K , and who 
was in the habit at meel time of partaking freely of 
strong tea. The boy until within tho last 12 mouths 
had always enjoyed good health, bnt lately had hii- 
oome aomewh.it dull and stupid, with palpitation at the 
least exoitement or exertion, a tendency to couvul- 
sions— very icstless at night, and sleep muoh disturbed, 
loss of memory, with at times a giddy feeling, ond 
both eyes muoh turned inwards and made to squint 
wi(h a peouli ic troinour of tbo eyes, as if »u(teciog 
from some inlornnl affeetiou of tho brain. Tlie bOy 
for his age was well devclopeil, and horn of stroug, 
healthy parents, but he bad of late showed every symp- 
tom of fall.ng into a bad state of health with groat 
teetlesfUBBB, marked squinting of both eyes, and which 
twitchid most severely. I at once diagnosed the ease 
as cne a is:iig from the poisonous or injurious etfeet 
of the exoassive use of strong tea drinking— a too com- 
mon habit, I regret to say, amongst families residing 
in tho interior. J told tlio parents, what I thought of 
the case, and the cause from which tho illness I be- 
lieved prooeedoJ. I told the pnronts, too, that I could 
do nothing m tho matter un'ess the injurious and per- 
il loions hajiit of strong tea drinking was at once 
discontinued and abandoned, otherwise the boy sooner 
or later must sucaumb to serious illnets, nervous 
prostration, or softeniug of the brain — in other words, 
BUiemia or b.ood-polsoning,* the result of strong t.a 
drinkieg. The parents at once acqaiesocd in my re- 
marks, and made a pledge that my instructions should 
be strictly carried out, and that the tea-driiiking 
regime for the future shonld bo entirely disoontluned, 
Btid notliiiig but plain water, water and sugar, or 
milk and water allowed at meal time. The tosult was 
that two months after I had been oonsulted tho hoy 
had completely regained his former hoalth-the bad 
memory, convalsions, giddiness, and palpitation had 
disappeared, rest at night undistutbed aud refreshing, 
and the boy being able to return to school. The 
symp.oma of poisoning ariiiing from the injurious 
habit of strong tea drinking in one so young was most 
charaoteriatio, and I have no hesitation in raying (after 
long expetienoo of bush habits and life) that a mote 
cruel, pitiful, sinful, aud peroioious hsbit' of pareuts 
allowing young ohlldreo of tondor years to parloke of so 
muon strong tea at moal time lias ouiy ouce for all to be 
mentioned aud condemned, and for ever abandoned by 
all sensible, well*withiQg parents who liave any parental 
regard and value the lives ond health off tliei 
iamilies. The ease is by no means an isolated or ox- 
^ of epitaphs,’' with a voDgeanoel— « 
