58 o 
THf IROPfCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[February i, 1896, 
its coating of dried and decomposed nuicilage, and 
in some cases witli an adjnnct of red oartli or red 
oclire, cannot be n wholesome article of food, and I 
believe largo niamifactnrera have to remove that shell 
before mannfactnring chocolate. The loss of weight 
to be met with in washed cacao is also therefore to 
be taken into account by the manufacturer, pins the 
cost and labour of removing these impurities. 
2nd — Artificial drj ing has to bo resorted to sooner 
or later, and already I may say that Mr, de 
Verteuil has successfully initiated such a means of 
drying cacao in bad weather. 
It is evident that the beans when washed will not 
only dry quicker and save fuel but also they will 
not require to be hand-rubbed and danced and thus 
save labour. 
Why then will manufacturers not pay higher for 
washed cacao ? — T suppose the natural tendency of 
inanufaCtnrers to keep down the price of the raw 
product is responsible for that. But time would 
soon convince them that it would be to their ad- 
vantage to huy a clean article and the public also 
would prefer to purchase chocolate manufactured 
vndoiHiletlhi from a. clean and pure article. 
Why then cease to prepare my cacao Ceylon 
fashion 7 — I am but an individual and can ill-nfford 
to lose money for any length of time ; but a com- 
pany, with very little capital, which would start a 
central factory in Port-of-Spain, tor instance, where 
abundance of water can be had, whore by rail they 
could receive the raw product from small and large 
proprietors, whore also they could put up cheap arti- 
ficial drying houses, would bo the right thing to put 
the washed cac:\o on the markets of the world and 
to have it in time appreciated as it should be. 
Not only such a company would nioko money but 
small proprietors and some large ones, I venture to 
predict, would have a ready sale for their pnxluct 
especially in bad weather, and the name of Trinidad 
cacao would again stand foi'einost in the markets of the 
world. — 1 beg to remain Dear Sir, Yours very truly, 
Eugene Laugo, .In. 
— Trinidad Af/ncidtnral liecord. 
Tub I'astok Oil PiANT,— No sort of bird, beast 
or creeping thing will, says an American fapor, touch 
a castor oil plant. It Bsems to bo a rank poison to 
all the animal world. Ev. n a goat will starve before 
biting off a leaf, and suill at it and turn up his upper 
lip as though it had the moat d'-toEtable odour on 
the face of the earth. Army worms and locusts will 
pass by it, though they may cat every other 
green thing in sight, and there is no surer way 
to drive moles from a Iswn than to plant s few 
OAstor beaoB hero and there. Even the tobaooo 
worm will refuse to feed on its leaves. There is 
hardly another instance in natural hi.story of n 
plant being so univorealiy detest'd by the animal 
wor'd. And yet wo krow Ih.o Eria silkworm of 
Assam feeds freely nod thrives well on the leaves 
of this plant.— indiun ArpicuUurist. [Castor oil 
plants grown on a large eoalo in Ciylon es a 
supposed protective of Libetiau coffee, if we re- 
member ar gbt, ha, I their leaves all eaten off by 
an insect. 1 here is aolually an ioeert which 
does not revolt even at toh iooo I — Ku. 7'. A ] 
A CoBUKSPOsnENT points ottenliou to what tea will 
do at Darjeeling, or r.ather to what it lots doin’. 
an I inslnnoca the Dootoriah Tea Estate, w hich was 
sold by pnblio ouction during the crisis of 1800-67 
for Ii20,000, and is now woith 1$ Iskha or more. 
It was sold in the usual manner by Mackenzie, 
lijall and Co., and knocked down to Colonel A. 
b’yers, of the Madras Fusiliers, who was j ined as 
a half hliare by the late D.-. J. P. Brougham, of 
OsloutlB. For morn than 20 years past the property 
has yielded a princely income to bo h psr'ners; 
and sinoo Dr. Brougham’s death Cilonel b’yera 
being desirous of aoquirieg the other half-share 
is undestood to have made the doctor's heirs bona- 
fide rash offer of nine lakhs of rupees for it, whiob, 
has been refused 1 Surely, if this is not quite as 
good ts a gold mine, it must be pretty nearly so. 
And there are other properties in the neighbour, 
hood whiob ebanged hands to similarly low figures 
during the s.sme crisis which are known to have 
done and to he doing almost as well as the Moonda 
Kotee Garden for instance, which along with more 
half a-dt'zen others was taken over by the Land 
Mortgi’ge B.ink for some 1150,000 after the original 
owners had spent about 3^ lakhs upon it. It is 
a pity it i.i so diffioult for the public to asoertaiu 
roliab'e particulars as to the working of the Dsrjeel- 
ting lea gardens. There used to be an Indian Tta 
Oaietie, in which one would naturally expect to 
and inlormution of this sort, but I understand it 
is now defunct . — Indian AgriculturUt. 
Tub Sedimentary deposit taken out of ponds is 
largely composed of dead leaves. This material 
forms a very useful dressing if spread alone over 
a hare or thin part of a field, but it would be 
more desirable to have it mixed with lime before 
application. The lime hastens the decomposition 
of the orgunio matter in the leaves and other 
d diri$ of vegetable forms, and materially adds to 
the usefuln'SS of the dreisiig. T.ie stuff taken 
from the pond may also bo prcfitably used in 
ooverirg dung heaps, as it will feive not only to 
waterproof ihe dung hiap, but also to absorb atly 
ammonia that might otherwise eicape from the 
decomposing dung — Indian Ay iiallurUt. [A hint 
tins for utilizing the (ffensive but fertile dredg- 
ings from the Colombo Lake.— En T. A.] 
Owl N Tea in Lonhon. - Messrs. Oow, Wilson 
iS; Stai ton write to ua by this mail : — 
'• Th« market f -r Oeyloii tea as you will aoe has 
soinenhat adviaiiacd from the lowest point, and as 
fompo’it on is general and a good all round demand 
prevails, tl’e prospects are gomewbat more enconraging 
than they we e two or three week.H baok. It must 
not bowel er be fo gottnn that large quantities of tea 
will shortly be arriving from ibe I-Un<j, and these 
if forced on the market too qniok'y, may somewba 
ovir'ax it, althoiigb w« sincari-ly hope that Ibis wil 
not prove to be the onso, aa there isginernlly a oon- 
sirlernblo bnsiness transneted in the flr*t lew months 
of the year. Wi'li kind regar Is, and wi-hing you the 
compliments of the season ; and wishing Geylon Tea 
I'l niters generally a Happy and Prosperous Now Year 
with better prices than we have rocrt.tly seen." 
The (,'OMMEnciAL Value ok Egyptian Pet- ■ 
itoLEiiM.- Wo have heard a good deal from time to 
tune aliout Egyptian potrolenm. and of the possihi- 
lity of the mineral oil which is found n.t Gemsnli on 
the shores of the liod Sea. becoming an important 
factor in the oil trade of the future. That being 
80 , it will ho interentilig to learn something concer- 
ning the character of tills oil. The illunriiatiiig 
power was tested in Elster'a photometer; the binning 
oil gave a light of 9-8 standard candles (Gerniiui). 
The wcig^ht of oi] burnt per hour was 31 graniw. 
\\ hen exposed to the air the oil rapidly (levoloj)od 
an nnpleasant odour. Messra. Kast and Kunklor are 
of onmion that Kgyptinn petroleum la not suitable 
for the miinufacture of illuminating oils, but is an 
excellent material for tlio preparation of lubricatiiiiT 
oUs.^Chemical Traih Jmnial. 
New AnvLTEHANTK. — M. (ktllardot announcos liia 
discovery of two more new adulterants of saffron, 
viz. fine shreds of onions, dried and coloured artifi- 
cially, and also the powder of “sweet cayenne” or 
paprika, made adherent to the stylo by some aggluti- 
nating agent, which he believes to be honey. This 
second adulterant ho finds present in as high a 
proportion as 00 or 70 per cent, or more. — Chenkic<{l 
I'mile ffoxinial. 
