Aug. 2, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



toi 



low rates is the eagerness of the public for anything 

 and everything that is called cheap. This rage for 

 cheapness has been fostered by dealers and worked 

 upon by present giving shops and the like, until at 

 last the retail prices of tea have been forced down 

 to a point at which it is impossible to provide a 

 really good article. In all probablity a reaction will 

 sooner or later set in, and the demand will be for 

 quality ; then will be the grocer's opportunity to prove 

 to consumers that long study and experience of the 

 trade enables him to supply the want, as no mere 

 novice or dabbler in the trade can. Of good tea there 

 will be no lack if only the demand is alike good and 

 the public are able to appreciate it and willing to 

 pay a fair price. It is unnecessary to remind our 

 readers that the quantity of tea exported from China 

 to all countries is only a tithe of what is actually 

 produced in that vast country ; nor that the Chinese 

 have for centuries made the growth and preparation 

 of tea one of their staple industries, and have suc- 

 ceeded in bringing it to the highest state of perfec- 

 tion. But, besides China, the capacities of other tea- 

 growing countries are practically unlimited, and in this 

 way the annexation of Upper Burma may be reason- 

 ably expected to yield great results to Anglo-Indian 

 enterprise. Advices from Calcutta state the probable 

 export of Indian tea to this country for the coming 

 season as about 64,000,0001b. which, if correct, is only 

 a little ahead of last year, but it is acknowledged that 

 the supply might be immensely augmented in the 

 future, and in all probability it will bo. In consider- 

 ing tea prospects the rapidly growing importance of 

 Ceylon as a tea -growing country must not be over- 

 looked. Already it occupies no mean position, since 

 the crop of the current season is expected to reach 

 6,000,000 lb., or fully 10 per cent of the whole pro- 

 duction of Indian tea ; this quantity, however, the 

 planters predict they will be easily able to double 

 next year, and three years hence they hope to have 

 their export up to 20,000,000 lb. Nor is it only from 

 Ceylon that large imports of tea may be expected, 

 but Java, Brazil, Florida, and even Natal, are all com- 

 ing competitors to be taken into account ; still in 

 spite of all this promised abundance, we are prepared 

 to maintain our conviction that tea, bearing its present 

 duty, i3 destined to rise. In India we are told, with 

 the best known appliances and the most careful man- 

 agement, Tea can he grown at a minimum of lOd per 

 lb. In such a season as 1884-85 that would yield very 

 little profit on medium crops, while on inferior sorts 

 it might mean actual loss ; and it is in the order of 

 things for skilled labour to increase in value. There 

 is also a homely saying about a bird in the bush, and the 

 fact that stocks of tea in this country are now so low, 

 is certainly some temptation to bold operators to hold 

 lay of the market and try to twist it up. Such an 

 incident may develop any day, while the unsettled 

 state of political affairs and the consequent uneasiness 

 felt in commercial quarters lead to the fear least 

 advantage should thereby be taken to enrich the few 

 at the expense of the many. The great desideratum 

 for the country at this juncture is confidence at 

 home, with the opening up of new markets for Hritish 

 trade. While little can be expected from onr Oou- 

 tinental neighbours, and perhaps even less from 

 America, there is much to be done in India, and it 

 is in that country and China with Burma, that the 

 great field of future commerce must be looked for ; and 

 hence we judge that a great extension of the Tea trade 

 is one of the things that may be confidently reckoned 

 upon and should be prepared for.— Grocers' Journal, 

 ^ 



PLANTING IN NETHEELANDS INDIA. 



(Translated for the Straits Times.) 



COFFEE .4.ND SUG.iB. — PLANTIN* DEPRESSION. 



The Java Bode of the 18th June asserts that 

 hard times indeed are in store for the planting and 

 mercantile community in that island. The low 

 rates for sugar ruling in East Java where no more 

 than 8 guilders per picul has beei: offered will only 



allow growers just to pay expenses under favour- 

 able circumstances. The only too probable result 

 will be the closing of most of the sugar mills and 

 the bringing down of many mercantile houses in 

 Java. When closing is once proceeded with there 

 is every reason for fearing that more than nine- 

 tenths of the mills which now further so much 

 wellbeing among the people around, will shut up, 

 and the natives in the neighbourhood will find them- 

 selves without inoney to pay up the heavy taxes now 

 bearing them down and also without sufficient food. 

 The outcome will most likely he a storm which' 

 unless curbed in time, will become only too wide- 

 spread. Another portion of the population, namely 

 pretty nearly one-third of the European element, 

 will be involved in the almost unavoidable ruin of 

 the sugar growing industry. It is a moot point 

 whether they will quietly hear with their becoming 

 paupers. The times even now are distressing enough. 

 Misery is rife among the lower classes of European 

 society in Java who, in default of honester means 

 of earning a livelihood, have been driven to begging, 

 robbery, smuggling, and even worse callings. Should 

 this disorganization bring on disturbances when 

 even these means fail, putting them down will be 

 hampered by the insufficient number of troops avail- 

 able for service. The widely prevalent depression 

 of trade and industry in Java has made itself ap- 

 parent in the yield of taxation, a marked falling 

 off being only too evideat. The outturn of every 

 tax has fallen below tbe estimate, sometimes as 

 much as one-half. The coffee yield has diminished 

 alarming, and the land-tax does not come up at all 

 to the mark of the assessment. Yet the expendit- 

 ure shows steady growth for all that. What with 

 failing revenue, crippled planting enterprise, a weak 

 army and navy, and beri-beri stalking over Acheen, 

 the outlook for Netherlands India is far from be- 

 ing cheerful and encouraging. There is no hope 

 for the better from changes in the machinery of 

 the Home Government. The Parliamentary elec- 

 tions in Holland has resulted in a majority for the 

 Liberals who, when they do come to power will as- 

 suredly go on with the present colonial policy of 

 laying on more and more taxes regardless of the 

 consideration whether they prove burdensome to the 

 people or not. 



Ravages bv Locusts in the Philippines.— On 

 Sunday, the 23rd May, there passed over the bay at 

 Iloilo a cloud of locusts so thick, says the Porvenir 

 de Biiisai/as, that at times it was impossible to see 

 the neighbouring hills of Guimaras. A part of the 

 cloud settled on one of the vessels in the bay, com- 

 pletely covering it, and the crew killed an immense 

 number of the insects in driving them off. The insects 

 were moving in the direction of Negros Island, which 

 we learn from a subsequent issue of the I'ori'eiiir, 

 was suffering severely from their ravages, all the 

 fields being invaded by them. The authorities had 

 issued notifications regarding the means to be taken 

 for their extermination, and the Governor was going 

 out in person to see that the measures laid down were 

 properly carried out. — Dailij Fresf<. 



Shea Butter Tree.— M.' Heckel whose researches 

 on the alkaloids of the kola nut are so well known 

 has recently called the attention of the Academy 

 of Sciences of Paris to the importance of the 

 Shea butter tree {Butyrosperinum Parkii) as a source 

 of gutta-percha. The milky juice of the trunk 

 when solidified has, he states, all the appearance 

 and properties of gutta-percha. The tree can be 

 tapped when four years old, grows readily in argillaceo- 

 siliceous and ferruginous soils, and is found over 

 a large area. M. Heckel also suggests that the 

 Bnssia trees of India should he examined with 

 respect to the character of the milky juice they 

 contain. — Mndraa 3TaU, 



