May I, T884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGBICULTURIST. 



829 



involving an outlay of capital of £300,000. Only five are 

 now in working order, and two of the largest of these are 

 in the market. Nevertheless, Mr. Morris is of opinion that 

 sugar can be easily produced there for about £10 per ton 

 and at the rate of two tons to the acre. 



" One planter," he says, " informed him," on actual 

 experiment one acre ef picked canes yielded four tons of 

 drained sugar. No artificial manure is required, nor any 

 drainage, beyond mere surface drains, and hardly any 

 cultivation beyond a couple of ploughings to clean the 

 canes. Canes ratoon for ten or twelver years without do 

 terioration, and instances have been quoted to me g 

 some cut for this year's crop that have been ratoonin- 

 for twenty years. From all I have been able to gather 

 on the subject I think it can be demonsti-ated that well 

 managed estates in the colony have been able to pay theis 

 way, and persons judsciously managing their own estate, 

 have been able to make a good general living out of them- 

 besides adding to a reserve fund, or reimbursing a fair 

 portion of the purchase money, within a verj- short time, 

 even under recent adverse cii-cumstauces affecting the 

 sugar trade. Whether estates can be continued with the 

 same results will of course depend upon the state of the 

 market, and steps taken to counteract the operation of 

 sugar bounties, without which it is considered by those 

 most competent to judge it will bo impossible to grow 

 sugar to a profit in any British colony." 



There would seem to be at present only one small coffee 

 estate in the colony, and that necessarily of an 

 expei-imental character. The following description of 

 this attempt will be read with interest, and it will be 

 noticed tliat in this as in all the more important in- 

 dustries, Mr. Morris speaks of a regular supply of 

 labour from external sources as essential to success : — 

 " About 100 acres had been cleared and estabUshed in 

 coffee under the shade of bananas, with corn as an inter- 

 mediary crop. The coffee trees, about 30,000, were from 

 one to two years old, planted out. Seed had been ob- 

 tained from Martinique, Trinidad and Guatemala. As a 

 whole, the plantation was in a promising state ; in some 

 cases the trees were overshaded by bananas, and con- 

 sequently, the plants were weak and ' spindled.' There is 

 no doubt, also that the ground had been somewhat im- 

 powerished by the large crop of corn (maize) which was 

 then being taken off. 



" Most of the trees about two years old wore, however, 

 bearing their first crop, and looked as if, even at this 

 eajrly age, some two or three hundredweights per acre 

 would be yielded by them. The plantation was well laid 

 out, with r.iads and intervals of 18 feet dividing the 

 blocks. Naturally, being a pioneering effort, the best 

 mode of procedure adapted to the district could not be 

 obtained at once ; and, again, the difficulty of obtaining 

 labour had hampered the undertaking and increased the 

 expenses. 



" I left the plantation, however, with a favourable im- 

 pression respecting the possibility of growing good coffee 

 in British llonduras, and I have no doubt that if coolie 

 labour could be obtained, the whole of this western dis- 

 trict would soon be dotted over with prosperous plant- 

 ations. The cost of clearing and cleaning land ready for 

 Ijlanting is put down at £(j per acre ; the labourers, at 

 present, owing to the remoteness of the district, get from 

 42 to 50 cents per day." 



TBLfi. est AUSTR,\XIA. 



(From a correspondent of the " Darjeelinri ]\'ev)S.") 



One subject I must try to treat of in detail and that 

 is the little I have seen and learned regarding Indian 

 Teas in the Colonies. On reaching Melbourne I found 

 that a large public sale was soon to come off. This I 

 made it a point to attend, after having the previous day 

 examined (but without having the opportunity of testing 

 in cup) samples of all the 78 lots or thereabouts to be 

 offered. The .sale I was very sorry to find passed very 

 heavily, and the result has proved most unsatisfactory to 

 the growers. Some of the Pekoe looked well, and -showed 

 extra " tip " for spring teas, but on the other hand many 

 of the IN.'koe Souchongs and Broken teas were uneven, 

 mixed with red leaf, and not calculated to take the eye. 

 The whole (nearly 4.00O packages, if I recollect rightly) 



were knocked down, to the highest bidders. The highcts 

 price realized for any lot was Is 7d some went as low 

 as 6d and the majority passed at lOd to lid, some Pekoes 

 not turning the shilling. I question much whether the 

 whole realized an average of over lOW per lb. Having 

 an introduction from a Melbourne firm to M&ssrs. 

 Heuty and Co. (Agents for the Calcutta Syndicate), I 

 called several times and had talks about Indian Teas 

 and their prospect in the AustraUan market. Henty & Co., 

 are a very old and respectable firm, (and as far as t^as 

 are concerned) seem to give themselves exclusively to Indian 

 Tea. This is doubtless an important consideration. The 

 gentleman who attends to the Indian Tea business of the 

 firm seems interested in its success. He is full of the 

 subject ; builds a good deal on analysis ; and keeps the 

 topic before the public by writing for the press. From 

 him I learned that Australia had been flooded with Indian 

 Teas this season, and on this account prices had been so 

 very much worse than last year. Henry & Co. also com- 

 plained bitterly about so many full chests being sent them 

 instead of those of the dimensions enjoined by the Syn- 

 dicate ; and it was quite noticeable at the auction that 

 the former sold pence per lb. lower than boxes or half- 

 chests containing the same quality. Last time 1 called, 

 I was informed that there had been a small sale that 

 proved more satisfactory to sellers than the large one 

 referred to, and I trust times will improve. At Sydney I 

 had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. James luglis (our 

 friend "Tarn's" brother) the representative of the interest 

 there, and had an earnest consultation with him and his 

 partner Mr. Brown, who has had experience of Indian 

 Teas in the London market. They kindly showed me 

 their premises, stock and some samples of " Darjeehngs " 

 along with others Mr. Brown expressed himself as most 

 confident that Darjeeling teas with appearance, though 

 without strength or body, are what is required for the 

 Australian market. Regarding New Zealand Mr. Herrold 

 had also the complaint of overstocked markets. He told 

 me that after I left Melbourne there had been another 

 large sale even less favourable to sellers than the one 

 referred to ; and that some Planters had persisted in send- 

 ing Darjeeling teas to Auckland though desired not to do 

 so, the warehouses were overstocked, and that just then 

 they were simply unsaleable even at great sacrifice. But 

 should all those consigimicnts have to go at unrem- 

 unerative prices ; if the teas be retailed unmixed and on 

 their ou-n merits, it cannot fail to have the bast possible 

 results in the long run. As tea is the drink of the colonies, 

 it is to be hoped that the Indian produce will in time mono- 

 polize the trade. Efforts to gain a footing everywhere 

 and achieve this end do not seem wanting. The first 

 thing that greeted my eye on reaching the Adelaide Railway 

 Station was a large artistic " poster" Advertisement, say 

 (i ft. K 4 ft., displaying an elephant loaded with tea boxes 

 proclaiming " ask for the Calcutta Tea Association's Indian 

 Tea Is 3d. to 3s. per lb. | to 10 lb. boxes." These large 

 bills I noticed in almost aU the towns of Victoria as well 

 as Melbourne, also in Sydney. Notices in shop windows 

 about Indian Teas were to- be seen frequently in Hobait 

 " Indian Tea 2s Od. : " and in Auckland a Toon chest 

 of a well-known Darjeeling hrand was displayed as large 

 as life. In addition to writing up Indian Teas, Henty 

 & Co. have inserted in the prmcipal Melbourne papers long 

 lists of shop-keepers throughout Australia and New Zealand 

 mUhorized to sell Indian Teas. This and the condition that 

 the principal Agents entrusted with the trade should not 

 meddle with Chma Teas, seem points of vital importance. 

 Mr. Inglis has also been rendering good service by utiliz- 

 ing his htorary and oratorical powers in giving the Syd- 

 neyites public lectures on the subject of Indian Teas— its 

 culture and manufacture. And I have heard it from those 

 who were not aware I knew Mr. Inghs that he succeeded 

 in making his topic interesting and instructive, and it is 

 to be hoped great results, to himself as well as the cause 

 may follow. A very hopeful sign is that the import of 

 India Tea into the colonies has increased as follows : — 



1S79-1S80 ... 3,000 lb. 



1880-18S1 ... ... ... 700,000 „ 



I8S1-1SS2 ... 1,000,000 „ 



1882-1883 (9 months only) ... 2,300,000 „ 



Efforts must have not however be slackened as there 

 still seems an indifference— with very many even a pre- 

 judice, against Indian Tea. The Australian colonies alone 



