8 oo 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[May 2, 1892. 
Being offered an appointment in the service of 
the Assam Company he left England to take up his 
new duties. He remained with the Assam Company 
for five years and left them to take over the 
management of the Sukwah Tea Company, in which 
capacity he acted for a period of 14 years, and of 
which coiroany he is at present a considerable share- 
holder. Ho has now resigned the appointment under 
this company, and is engaged in pushing the inven- 
tion of which wo have made a cursory mention above. 
This invention, a tea leaf withering macliine, 
which he has named the " Cyclone,” like many other 
inventions, has taken years to bring to anything 
like a state of perfection. He had not the oppor- 
tunities that many inventors have of having all their 
time to dovote to their one object, and of having 
workshops to experiment in ; but he had to find out 
stop by step the faults and failings of his system, 
and, as he says himself, bat for the assistance of a 
neighbouring planter, who took an interest in the 
machine from the first and who introduced it into 
his company, he doubts whether the invention would 
ever have attracted the attention it has now. From 
all wo can hear of this invention, and judging from 
the highly satisfactory testimonials wo have had an 
opportunity of reading regarding the work performed 
by the inventor’s latest improved maehinos, we 
have little doubt that it has a groat future before 
it. Wo do not pnrpOBc entering into a detailed 
description of the machine, but from what wo can 
gather the inventor has produced one that will 
practically do away with largo withering houses. It 
aims not only at economy of space but economy in 
labor, as the largest machines can be worked by 
half a dozen boys. The machine itself is of the 
most simple discription, there being no complicated 
parts or machinery about it to got out of order, or 
that a factory carpenter could not put right at the 
shortest notice. It performs its work thoroughly in 
alt weathers or conditions of atmosphere, prevent- 
ing night work, and every planter knows what that 
means. It also produces the leaf withered to any 
extent desired with such perfect regularity as to 
keep the Tea Rollers and other machinery, Ac., 
steadily at work from early morning nntil the 
wholeof the leaf has been worked off. Perhaps the 
most nrprising thing to learn about it is, that leaf 
whichhas been plucked off the trees a few minutes 
before the gong strikes at noon, and brought into 
the factory, often dripping wet, is passed through the 
machine within two hours and carried off to the 
rolling tables perfectly withered. This to practical 
planters might at first produce the impression that 
the loaf would suffer by snob rapid withering, and 
that it inuat be necessary to wither it at a high 
teiiiporatare ; but such we aro assured is not the 
case, as by moans of the new system adopted, the 
leaf is taken out of the machines quite cold, and, 
as those who bave had opportunities of testing 
these new machines doclaro, " Withered to perfection.” 
That the “ Cyclone” withorer has at last begun to 
attract attention is proved by the fact that a 
considerable number of orders have lately been 
received for Assam and Cachar ; one company alone 
will have six of them at work this season. 
We hope to see the machines more widely 
patronized than they are already, as an invention 
of this kind, reducing the expense of labour and 
performing its work in a manner far superior to any 
of the other methods commonly in use, deserves to 
have given to it a prominent po.sition in public favor. 
Before closing these notes we might add that Mr. 
Turton in his younger days was a bit of a cricketer. 
His best year was in IHOl) when he distinguished 
himself at Birkenhead Park against the All England 
eleven, receiving a presentation bat for his perfor- 
mance against them. He also kept up his interest 
in cricket whilst in Assam and captained the Nazira 
Team for many years in many a hard fought contest 
against their Jorehat and Dibrughur opponents. He 
was also an enthusiastic Volunteer, lie began in 
his youth by serving as a private in the Dorsetshire 
Administrative Battalion, then as Lieutenant and 
Captain in the Itli Lancashire Artillery Volunteers, 
finally as.Capt^in of "A Troop," Sibsagar Mounted 
Rides, which corps he was chiefly instrument^ in 
raising, and which has since increased so materially 
both in number and efficiency under its late popular 
commander Lieutcnaut-Colonel Buckingham, c.i.n , 
who had to resign this command to be promoted to 
the higher command of the Assam Valley Adminis- 
trative Battalion . — Jndtan I’taiitera’ OarcKe', Feb. ‘20. 
POPPY TEA. 
The reclaimed land grows the most splendid and 
abundant crops of eorn. 1 have walked between 
two stacks, each 100 ft. long. But the land that 
grows corn grows also weed rankly ; the drills 
are made nine inches apart, and gangs of women 
are employed with hoes to weed between the drills, 
two or three times in the year. With them goes 
a ganger to keep them to their work and prevent 
chattering. Time wa when the ganger was armed 
with a sharp goad, wiib which he progged the 
hoer between the shoulder blades. The demand 
for female labour has this disastrous elTect — it draws 
the mothers away from their obildron. One thing 
may be seen in the Fens that is not pleasant, and 
that is the little plot of white poppy grown in the 
oottago garden. That plot moans a good deal of 
evil. It means the making of " poppy tea” — in 
another word, opium to be administered to the 
babes while the mother ia out at work. The 
little ohild is given ita poppy tea in the 
morning, and the mother looks the cottage door, 
knowing the babe will sleep like a log till she returns 
at sunset. Children thus diugged have a dazed 
look through life, aod have not their wits pro- 
perly. They are heavy, with only lissbes of in- 
telligence. But it has another evil ellcat. It in- 
duoes a craving for opium. The chemists could 
tell a tale that would cause surprise, if they ohose, 
at the amount sold bjr them to the fen folk on 
market days. There is a little shyness about 
asking blankly for opium, and the reoeived formula 
is: “I'll trouble you, sir, for an ounce ol that," 
The ohemist knows well what that moans. — 
Daily Grajthic, Feb. 16th 
INDIAN TEA AT CHICAGO. 
At a meeting of the Indian Tea Districts Assn- 
oiatiuu held this week, a propo al received from the 
directors of the recently-lormed Palais Indian Tea 
Uousce, Limited (Paris), for nudertakiug the work 
of exhibiting Indian tea in an appropriate way at 
the forthcoming Chicago Eihibitiou was cousidered. 
It was explaiued to the meeting that prodigious 
efforts wore being made by Cejlou planters, assisted 
by liberal grants both from the Ceylon Govern- 
ment, the planters themselves and the commercial 
houses in Colombo, lo have a thorougbly repre- 
sentative exhibition of their tea and a atroeg pro- 
paganda of its merits throughout the United States 
generally. It was felt that, althongb the work done 
by Ceylon would evenlually help luiiian tea also, it was 
hardly compatible with the digeity of the Indian plsnlers 
to leave the work altogether to tbeir neighbours, 
and that India also should be represented and 
the interests of ludiau tea planters promoted. To 
work on the lines of the Ceylon pluuters would imply 
a larger disbursement of money thau it seemed likely 
could roidily be obtained. The case might bo met, 
however, by accepting the proposals of tbs “ Palais 
ludien ” Company — a company which, it waa well 
known, had been got up and subscribed for almust 
entirely of the chief Loudon representatives of the 
tea companies and estates, but the small capital of 
wliioh had been entirely absorbed by the work of 
iotroduoing tea into Ftaiioe. 
The proposal of tills Company was tliat the tea 
planting oommunicy in Calcutta should raise a 
guarantee fund of, say, JEd.UOO or £4,000, endnavout- 
iug, if possible, to get the ludiau or Bengal Goveru- 
