I 
March i, i8g2.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
68s 
^oti»i0aponiJ^no0. 
■ ♦ ■ — — 
Ta the Editor. 
"SUBLIME TOBACCO 1" “QUID BIDES?” 
Jan. 2Itb. 
Sib, — No onn ivill rogret more than Ramajamy 
the oollapso of tobaooo ouUivation iu Ceylon, for 
to him the pnghadli latum waa a veritable para- 
tiiae. There he oould enjoy hia otium cum dii/ni- 
late undisturbed by uU induenoos of an inltuaive 
and diacomforting character. His ufleotion for the 
“ Sraokeleaf” estate waa unbounded, for besides 
enjoying tbe bleaainga of an caay life, ha waa 
about the only party who made anything out of 
the oonoern. How very prominently Mutale haa 
lately been tiguring aa a burial plane for many 
Britiah sovereigns. First we have the Govern 
inent dropping, year after year, a goodly number 
of rupees (equivalent to many aovoreigna) on a 
badly fed railway. Then we have the lately 
revealed fiasco in connection with the Ceylon 
Tobacco Company. And, last of all, we have 
been told that the Ceylon Land and Produce 
Comp my have found it absolutely neoesnary to 
Write no less than 1:8,038-10-8 off the value of 
their Matnle properties ! Thera surely must be 
Something wrong in all this, and, perhaps, Mr. 
Fairweather's ri m rks at the late meeting of the 
Ceylon Tobacco Company may admit of a wider 
application than he meant them to do. Anyhow, 
sootiorny seems to be a more necessary precursor 
m suooeaa in Matale than in any other district 
the island. Let superintendents be bound 
down to produce their crops at the minimum 
cost, and Matsle may yet prove to bo a sate 
district in which to invest the money of a 
sometimes ovcr-confiding public. But, before 
deciding, let investors take a hesitating mental 
glance backward, into those abysses of financial 
death which have engulfed many of us, and which 
tnay be open and engulf many mote. They should 
hever fail to be guided by a wise foresight in 
hiaking all preliminary arrangements, or to take 
soundings of t e most minute and careful kind. 
. Tobacco growing is never likely to be repeated 
Ucylon on a large scale. Anyone venturing 
•O do 
so is not likely ever to be in a position 
*0 invest in the purchase of a carriage, or to 
print on its panels the punning motto rooom- 
TOonded by Theodore Hook to a enooeastul to- 
‘’“ooonist, viz. QUID RIDES. 
no green oolouring matter. To express this distifto- 
tion in another way: — Loranthus does not forage fof 
itself but robe ite host of its (the host's) supply 
of raw materials or uncooked food, Heroileia on 
the other hand waits, as it were, till the 
material is prepared, and robs its host of the 
“ cooked ” food. Thus Heroileia is the greater, 
meaner, more cunning and, withal, more dangerous 
thief 1 
And so some botanists distinguish between these 
two kinds of parasites as partial parasites (such ai 
Loranthus) and trite parasites (such as Hemileia). 
— Yours, ifeo., T. 
[We are muoh indebted to our aocomplisbed 
correspondent for this interesting note, but we are 
puzzled by the repreBontation of Hemileia feeding 
on the juices of the “ bast" or “ bark.’’ If so, we 
have learned something utterly new to us about 
the leaf fungus. Our impression was that tha 
spores never penetrated the bark of the coffee 
busb, but entered through the stomata of the 
leaves, the myoelium then breaking np the cells 
and feeding on the elaborated juices. — En. 3'. A.] 
PINE r*. MEDIUM bLUOKING. 
Dnin Sib, — A letter by "W. A. B.,” a “well- 
known ’’ planter, has appeared in the local “Times" 
on the above •' time-worn subjLOt,’’ (as the editor 
rightly oalls it): and, except for tbe beading, whiob is 
in bad laste (spes mea in tc), and whiob is supposed 
to contain a joke, tliere is absolutely nothing new 
in tbe way of information oonveyed to the reader. 
A few figures are given, which are utterly worthless 
except us a multiplicatiou sum for boys of tbe first 
standard, as they are not founded upon fact. 
GOO lb. per acre cost, »«y, so much : profit so muoh : 
400 lb. per acre cost, mi/, do do do. 
Therefore, muoh better get an average of Is for 
your tea i/i/ou can: Q. E. D. The fact is that tha 
conditions under which tea is grown in Oeylon 
are so varying and variable, that no general law 
oan be laid down with regard to any of the 
processes of cultivation and manufacture that will 
be applicable to the whole country, or even to 
neighbouring districts. What each individual plan- 
ter must strive lo do is to find out hia own diatriot’s 
peouliarities of soil, olimnto, Jka., to a 'P, act aooord- 
ingly, and allow no riihhith to leave his factory.— 
Yours KABOLY PUBDO. 
[Our correspondent has failed to notice the main 
point in the letter, viz., the wonderful assertion, 
contrary to the opinion of all experts, (hat fine 
plucking exhausts tea bushes less than ordinary 
plucking ! —Ed. T. vf.J 
LORANTHUS AND HEMILEIA. 
Sin, — In iin editorial note on a letter in yoor 
Jsue of the ‘ilUh instant, you say that the Loran. 
•ilia " spreads over the stems and branohes of 
,^®es, and from the bark cells sucks out the life 
. OH the mycelium of Hemileia vuelatrix does 
t? 0^ ootleo leaves, ” Loranthus and 
temileia may be both claesed as parasites in- 
81'uoh as they both subsist upon a host, but 
fiero is this dislinotion between them, viz., 
oranthus sends its roots into the wood tissue 
the host and absorbs the crude sap eonsisting 
‘ Water with substanoes in solution that have 
be. 
®ii taken up from the soil, not yet manufaolured 
'to organic material, the manufacturing being 
Loranthus itself as is evidenced by the 
nni latter containing ohlorophyl or green 
I “‘■'08 matter. Hemileia, on the other hand, 
sorbs the elaborated sap from the bark (or more 
rrootly the bast) tissue: that is to say, it does no 
_ ®”'t‘a“turirg itself at all, but robs its host of tbe 
hufaotured or prepared food— and hence it needs 
n (j 
Tea in Peksia.— The British Consul at 
Meshed (Persia), in hia report on tha trade of 
Khorassan for 1890-91, states that the Chinese tea 
imported was all purohased from British traders at 
Bombay. There being a doubt about this last year, 
the value otOhinese tea waa exelu'iad from the total 
of British imports in last report. The value of green 
tea imported during the year 1890-91 foil by £7,933, 
being only £117,781. as against £135,711 in 1889-90. 
But the va uc of black tea imported amounted, on 
the other hand, to £28,269, or £11.126 more than in 
1889-90, when the total was £17.143. It may be 
noted hero that all tea imported fto.-n Bombay by tbe 
Persian merchants of Yozd goes direct to Buasian 
territory, via Sabzawdr. 01 llie green tea about 
£111,016 worth was Chineso tea purohased in 
Bombay, against £118,671 last year. The value of 
Indian green tea wao £6,765 worth, against £7,143 
worth last . tear. Of black tea £28,269 worth was 
imported, of which £19,706 worth was Indian against 
£12,000 last year. Of tha green tea about £98,305 
worth passed on to Russian lerritory.— L. and C. 
Kxpreis, Jan, 22Dd. 
