73S 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April i, 1884.. 



CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN TRAVANOORE. 



•■'Bark'' writes from Travaucore: — 



I notice in a receut issue, your Ooty Chnmicler says he 

 ujulerstaiicis "that the Travaucore cinchonas are a failure.- 

 Planted in lateritf, their roots become water-logged, the 

 bark peels off, and the plant die?." As your Chronicler 

 writes from a praiseworthy desire to keep the public well 

 posted up in all planting news, and his chronicles are 

 read with interest liy the i^lanting community of the 

 presidency, and elsewhere, surely his correspondents might 

 use due care when sending him "planting" iuformatiou. 

 Travaucore is no mean territory, and because in some parts 

 the soil is chiefly laterite, and the cinchonas planted in 

 it have died, it does not at all follow that cinchona cul- 

 tivation here is a failure. In this district we have at least 

 a million, if not nearly double that number, of young 

 cincUonas of every age, from a few months to three 

 years, and, so far as I am aware, there have been no 

 failures amongst them on account of '■^ wet toes" except 

 where they have been planted in worn-out coffee soil, in 

 the hopes of getting some return from them before they 

 died from beiug water-logged. On one estate that has 

 a clayey laterite soil in which the cott'ee all died out 

 through some root-disease attacking it, every cinchona plaut 

 has gone the same way, or is fast doing so after attain- 

 ing the age of two or three years, for it is simply impossible 

 for tlie roots of any but the strongest trees to spread and 

 find nourishment in hMc\\ yround — really not soil at all; — 

 but this is the only case of entire failure that I kuow 

 of Ledgers and Calisayas do not seem a success on 

 account of our heavy rainfall at high elevations, but suc- 

 cirubras, and all the more hardy varieties have every 

 appeai-ance of promise. Our large nurseries do not give 

 one the idea that Travancorc cinchona cultivation is a 

 failure, if suitable soil is selected and care be taken to 

 plaut the varieties now found to answer at the different 

 elevations, as some varieties are evidently susceptible of 

 the least variation in temperature and rainfall. One planter 

 here has registered orders for about two-and-a-half lakhs 

 of plants to be ready by next planting season, aud to 

 supplement his own extensive nurseries. So we are not 

 yet convinced that Travaucore will not some day export 

 its fair share of h&x\ii.^M(tdrcts Times. 



INDIAN TEA IN AMEEICA. 



If ever rejoicing over misery was to be accepted as 

 allowable, it is most certainly so now, and ludiau tea owners 

 and growers can chuckle opeuly over the woes of their 

 falling foes — China and Japan shippers, for while a few 

 accidental _/a«.r yjrri- might have called for pity, a long series 

 of dishonest practices has at length brought down condign 

 punishment in a very tangible form. The workings of 

 the "Tea Adultunition Act" passed by Congress, have 

 most plainly declared their value, aud a determination to 

 enforce iheir provisions speaks highly for the Uuited States 

 authorities. During 1880-81 we are informed that 80,000 

 packages, shut out of English Ports as adulterated, were 

 sent on to America for consumption, and it is needless 

 to add that ;i very large propnrtion of it is still on hand 

 unsold in this country. AYhile "gift" tea companies~are 

 ojft'ring their '• watches," furniture, aud presents, to Amer- 

 icans to try and work off the rubbish by hook or by 

 crook. The steamsbi]) Flintshire brought upwards of a 

 million pounds of teas from China and Japan lately, and 

 of her cargo ;i, 100 chests of China rubbish svere condemned 

 as impure by the United States' Appraiser, while 5*12 chests 

 of J;ipan trash shared a like fate. One hundred chestJs 

 of China tea (I) have recently been rejected as adnlttTatcd 

 in San Francisco, and ordered to" be returned to < 'hiua. 



About 3,000 packagi'S of " Pingsueys " were cotulemned 

 in New York some months ago, and an estimate appears 

 in j>rint, in a reliable publication, that 10,000,000 pounds 

 of Japans and Chinas will be refused a market in this 

 cnuntry. The effect of all this publicity has marked it- 

 self, and consumers have grown more cuitious, aud either 

 ccas{! to drink tea at all, or look around for any tea 

 having an appearan<'e of pureness, no matter at what a 

 cost. Enormous quantities of Japans aud Chinas must be 

 stured in America, awaiting sales almost at any price, and 

 we are informed that the Japan tea circles are panic- 

 btruek for money. JS^ev^j; wae there gucU a momenj^ as th§ 



present for Indian Teas to step in and gain a footing on 

 their own merits nothing will afterwards upset, and yet 

 what do we know to be a positive fact r' that teas which 

 were made as a speciality for the American market, or 

 rather for consumption by land introduction to the masses, 

 have simply been made a subject for speculators to work 

 upon at a dead loss to Indian gi-owcrs aud a clear double 

 gain to themselves. — ladiaa Tec Oozeite. 



^- — 



TEA AND SILK FAKMING: AN EXAMPLE 

 WOBTH FOLLOAVING. 



It will be gratifying to the promoters of tea and silk farm- 

 ing in New Zealand to learn from the printed Parhament- 

 ary debates for August, which reached this country a few 

 days ago, that the Colonial Government has recently taken 

 active steps towards the inauguration of at least one of 

 these industries among the Maoris. Some months ago a 

 small consignment of silk worm's eggs were forwarded to 

 London in the ice room of the S. S. "British King " for 

 distribution among the sericicultural experts in England 

 and on the Eui'opean Continent, partly with the view of 

 testing the value of "graiue" regared in New Zealand, 

 and partly with the important object of a.iccrLainiug from 

 the best authorities if the eggs were really free from 

 disease. The results are not yet known, but they are 

 looked for immediately with the keenest interest. Mean- 

 while, in the Colonial Parliament on the 21st August, in 

 reply to some questions put by Mr. Bathgate, the Hon. 

 Mr. Dick intimated that the Government had offered a 

 bonus for the production of cocoons; that a gentleman 

 acquainted -^vith the subject had been putting the matter 

 into a practical shape, and had succeeded in rearing silk- 

 worms aud showing excellent saniiiles at the recent C-hrist- 

 church Exhibition; aud that reports had been published 

 with the view of instructing any one desirous of carrying 

 out the propagation of silk-worms. He also said that in 

 regard to the establishment of the industi-y among the 

 natives the Government last April issued a circular to 

 teachers in native schools, asking them to encourage the 

 growth of the nudberry among the Maoris; that mulherry 

 plants had been distributed to thirty-four scho(tIs; that 

 the inspector of native schools had reported favourably 

 regarding Government encouragement towards a company 

 undertaking to assist in teaching the business to I he natives; 

 and that if there was any company prepared to make a 

 special offer, the Government would be ha])py to consider 

 it. "With reference to tea-growing the Government had 

 not yet been able to see their way to any arrangement. 

 Considering that questions put by Mr. Bathgate to the 

 same Minister only last year elicited little else than some 

 mild official chaff, the improved and even serious tone of 

 the rejily on the present occasion seems to augur well 

 for the enterprise so long advocated by one of our fellow- 

 townsmen. — Ladies' Jouviud. 



PRODUCTION OF TEA IN CHINA. 



Can it be possible that China produces 2,000 millions of 

 pounds of tea? We doubt it, but the statement is posit- 

 ively made in an article on China and Indian Tea in the 

 American (h'occr: — 



(.'hina produces between 2,000.000,000 and 3,000,000,000 

 pounds of tea annually, all of which, except one-tenth, is 

 consumed within its borders. Its tea-growing area covers 

 435,000 square miles, besi<lcs tlie Island of Formosa. The 

 product of each district is tlitl'4;rent from that of the 

 others, and is due to variation in soil, climate and mode 

 of preparation for market. 



Tea cultivated under a moist, southern sky grows more 

 luxuriantly than farther north, where the leaf is -thinner 

 and more delicate hi flavour. 



AVe divide ('hina ttui into three general classes, viz: — 



Green, or unfermented tea. 



Black, or fermented tea, sub'divided into Oolongs , and 

 Congou, the fornu^r subjected to .slight and the latter to 

 great fermentation. 



Scented, also fermented. 



Fermentation turns the leaf black, and iu a measure 

 destroys tlint quality iu the tea which produces wakeful- 

 ness and affects the nervous system. Hence it is that 

 unfermented or green tea is a greater excitiiut of the 



