July i, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



23 



and the carriage 3s. If sold for 20a-. {i.e., three or 

 four for l(/.), a considerable margin would be left for 

 profits to the curers and others, 



lu addition to preserving fish, boracic acid might 

 be of use for preserving fishermen's bait. Often the 

 fishermen (or more often the fisherwomen, at con- 

 siderable expenditure of time and money, bait their 

 lines in vain. All arrangements are made for a night's 

 fishing, when a change of weather prevents the boats 

 reaching the fishing ground. Before another night 

 arrives tbe bait has usually lost its catching powers, 

 and the tedious process of baiting the lines has to 

 be repeated. Whether boracic acid wid preserve bait 

 the fishermen only can settle. If at Anstruther, or 

 some other fishing station, two or three fishermen 

 use bait which has been preserved for some days 

 ia an equal mixture of salt and boracic, and com- 

 pare its catching power with fresh bait, they will 

 be able to ascertain whether this preservative will in 

 any way lessen their labors. The United States 

 fishermen titen have wonderful success when they 

 use frozen herring as bait ; the herring are usually 

 frozen and exported from Lakrurior. 



It may be hoped this system of treating fresh fish 

 will be useful. It ought at least to enable our curer3 to 

 compete with Norway, for in addition to other advant- 

 ages they have better material to work with, our herring 

 being undoubtedly superior to those taken around 

 the t^candlnavian coast ; even the Norwegians prefer 

 Scotch-cured herring to their own. ^Further, if curers 

 preseive herring with boracic acid they will to a great 

 extent be independent of the Uailway Companies, it 

 will no longer be necessary to dispatch fish by ex- 

 press trains, and pay for their carriage two or even 

 three times their value. Whether the herring take 

 a day or a week to reach London, Manchester, and 

 other large towns will make no differece, and in many 

 instances curers may with advantage forward parcels 

 f)i fish by the ordinary coasting steamer.s. The 

 saving made by sending fish by sea will be evident 

 when it is stateil it would probably cost less to send 

 a barrel of herrings twice round the world by ste imer 

 than to send it once from St. Andrews to London 

 \>y rfiil Wii must, bowev(!r, iiot expect too much 

 troin boracic acid. Something more will be required 

 before the fishery industry recovers from its present 

 state of collapse, and begius to assume the importance 

 it deserves. The consideration of a more thorough 

 system of reaping and distributing the harvest of the 

 sea will be better reserved for another communication. 



TEA CULTURE IN N.VTAL. 



Sir, — In mv previous letters respecting the above, 

 dated C)ct. 10, 1884, and Aug. 28, 1885, which you 

 kindly publisbed, I endeavoured to convey to your 

 readers that a profitable and pleasant industry, re- 

 quiring but small capital to commence with, was 

 open to those anxious to benefit themselves and 

 relieve the congestion of population in this couiitr}-, 

 whereby others would be also l)enefited. 



At the Colonial and Indian Exhibition your read- 

 ers have an opportunity of seeing the exhibits of 

 Natal ti a, and assuring themselves that tea of really 

 superior quality is grown and manufactured iu South 

 Africa, a fact th:it I have heard many question. 



The A''atal Mercury of March 23 has the following : — 

 " Up to date Mr. .1. L. Hulett has manufactured this 

 season 28,500 lb. of tea. His estimate for the season 

 was 35,0(>0 lb., which he wiii be able to secure now 

 without much diflicultj-." " Messrs. Lyle and Ueynolds, 

 Kirkby Vale estate, have .secured over 5,000 lb. tea 

 this season, but they anticip^ite getting 10,000 lb. alto- 

 gether before the present season closes." These 

 paragraphs refer onljf to two estates. The oldest, 

 Mr. Hulett'?, conimenc;'d with the planting of half- 

 an-acre, Nov., 1877; 5:V acres planted out Nov., 1880; 

 26 acres Nov,, LsBl ; 18 acres 1882. 



Now that the industry is assured, extensive planting 

 is going on throughout the coast lauds of the colouy. 

 Mr. Hulett kindly volunteers any information required 

 to beginners on the spot, or to correspondents. I 

 am also open to afford all imformation at my dis- 



posal, and desire to state that the tea-growers in 

 Natal have all had to grope their way without 

 special training. I have heard it suggested that with 

 the cultivation of ludian and Ceylon teas increasiug, 

 that over-production is sure to be the result in the 

 course of a few years. I put the question to a practi- 

 cal man .some few weeks back, and he replied thus : 

 China teas year by year decrease in strength and 

 value, owing to overcropping and the natural ex- 

 haustion of the soil. The demand for good tea is 

 ever-increasiag, and to keep up the standard of quality, 

 increased quantities of Indian teas have to be mixed 

 with those from China for retail trade. In other 

 words, China at present supplies bulk, and India and 

 Oeylou quality or strength. The sample of tea enclosed, 

 of Mr. Hulett's, has just been valued at 2s. 7d. in 

 bulk, and partakes of the full character of Indian 

 and Ceylon teas in hquoring and appearance.— Mortov 

 Green. 



[Having submitted the inclosed sample to a firm 

 of high standing, we have received the following 

 report as to its quality and value : " It is very like 

 a Ceylon tea, has a very pretty leaf, but not nnich 

 of a liquor, and would be almost sure to find a 

 market in England. If it was printed as a Ceylon 

 tea no doubt it would fetch Is. 3d. to Is. 4d., but 

 being a new tea people would not care about giving 

 more than Is. to Is 2d., as they would not know 

 how it would do for bulking purposes. The infusion 

 is good, but inchned to be greenish.'"— ED.J—/''/V;?f7. 



PEPPJiK. — Discussing the future prospects of pepper 

 generally, the (irocer says :— " High as prices may be 

 considered in Loudon, they are looked upon as being 

 very moderate or low in Singapore and Penang, and 

 it has been reported that .shipments from thence 

 have in consequence been stojiped. Be tliatas it may, 

 the arrivals from the East are certain to be later 

 than usual, having only lately beguii, -whereas in other 

 years at this time they have been near at hand ; and 

 besides that, heavier stocks weri' also alreatly in ware- 

 house. The bulk of the supply of black pepper may 

 consist of Penang descriptions, or it may not, and the 

 answer to this question will decide whether or not the 

 season's shipments to this port will be large, restricted, 

 or small. Advices from Eastern India are silent on that 

 point, and it is of course impossible to predict whether 

 the market will go higher or lower. Home buyers natur- 

 ally would prefer to see the value further decline, as it 

 enables them to get rid of a larger quantity of stuff and 

 that too at a better profit. At the same time the export- 

 ers are much freer purchasers when prices tend more 

 iu their favour ; and although their being so increases 

 the competition between one branch of the trade 

 and another, it helps to quickly absorb the supplies 

 on offer, and make the necessity for liberal import- 

 ations to this country all the greater. It thus appears 

 that the tendency of the market is as much depend- 

 ent OH the largeness or sruallness of the demand for 

 export in the spring or autumn, as it is on the 

 scantiness or abundance of the whole season's supply, 

 and until the one or the other of these probabilities 

 develop themselves into living facts, it is mere coquett- 

 ing with the question to say what will be the prevailing 

 condition of the peppet market during the next six 

 mouths. There are, nevertheless, one or two things 

 of which we may be sure, and the first is, that specul- 

 ators for a rise— should there be any persons so 

 foolish or misguided— will not have much scope for 

 operating as they wish, as with Singapore white 

 pepper of fair merchantable quality at lO^d. to lid., 

 and black at ()|d. per lb., there is but little room 

 f._:- a fresh advance, unl.-.ss the enquiry is very strong 

 or the consignments hither extremely light. Another 

 circumstance which ought not to be lost sight of is, that 

 while the supply of pepper in general does not ap- 

 precial)ly augiu'^iit, the consumption and deliveries at 

 the leading depots are gr.adually extending, and may 

 at no distant day assume bigger proportions that 

 !Vny dealer or exporter ever supposed."— //o)»'^ rtwri CoU 

 niiial atii/. 



