Aug. 2, i-886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



117 



wire to some tune and raised the drooping fortunes 

 of the planters there. If Oeylou continues increasing 

 her outturn of tea at tl»e present rate we shall see 

 ii tremendous gkit in the market before long, and 

 then let those engaged in the China tea trade look 

 out. According to ray view China will not he able 

 to hold her own, and the result will be disaster. If 

 planters in India and Ceylon can place their teas 

 in the Loudon market at low prices the game will 

 be theirs, but it is quite certain some gardens will 

 go to the bad. I advise all shareholders in tea to 

 make careful selection before the evil day comes, and 

 I also urge upon investors in this class of security 

 to see that the companies they invest in are strong 

 ill the "Reserve" department, and also take a great 

 interest in details, even to the nature of the machinery 

 used. Trusting you and your readers will pardon 

 this rambling letter from an old man.— Yours, &c., 



An Old Inpian Fogey. 



COFFEE, &c., PLANTING IN NETHEELANDS 

 INDIA. 



{Translated for the Siraitfi Times.) 



By last advices from Sonrabaya the commercial 

 outlook was gloomy indeed from the rapidly in- 

 creasing number of Chinese insolvencies without 

 any prospect of improvement in the near future. 

 Some idea of the reach of the evil may be formed 

 from statistics bearing upon the subject drawn up 

 by the Agent of the Java Bank there, to show the 

 extent of the losses suffered by the mercantile com- 

 nmnity in that quarter from failures and liquid- 

 ations among Chinese so far as known. Many 

 other merchants during that period had been 

 obliged to make arrangements with credit- 

 ors to which naturally as little publicity 

 as possible was given. The statistics given, 

 incomplete as they are, extend from tlie 1st 

 April, 1885 to the corresponding date this 

 yeai", and show figures of such significance tliat 

 one wonders how it is possible, under these 

 circumstances, for any mercantile firm to have 

 courage to continue carrying on business there. 

 The number of oflicially sanctioned bankruptcies 

 in Java during 188') amounted to Oil, the lion's 

 share, ;i8, falling to Sourabaya. In the statistics 

 of the Java Bank, there are enumerated .50 failures 

 and 2"2 liquidations at that city from April 

 1885 to April 1886 with liabilities coming to 

 2,159, 581 guilders and assets estimated at 8:^8,520 

 guilders. Bad as the present situation of affairs 

 is, there is every likelihood of its becoming even 

 worse. 



The Java lioth has been informed on re- 

 liable authority that tea planters in Java 

 will probably do good business there partly 

 in consequence of the high prices which 

 I'juropean dealers now give for that article, from 

 its having so vastly improved in quality owing to 

 better preparation for the market than formerly. 

 Another reason for this anticipation is the greater 

 yield available which in its turn resulted from the 

 drought prevalent in 1885 and from the fewness 

 at that destrnetive insect, the Ih'Inpcltix Aiitonii, 

 after the rainy season had once fairly set in. This 

 small winged insect has wrought havoc on the estates 

 of tea and cinchona planters estimated at thousands 

 of pounds of crop from its influencing indirectly 

 the (pmntity of the outturn by destroying tlie 

 young leaves on plants and trees. \\'ith regard 

 to tea the evil consequences become imme- 

 diately manifest but, as to cinchona, tliey 

 are betolconed by retarded growth and the 

 consequent slight increase of the bark in- 

 weight. Hitherto no better means of checking 

 this pest has been known than that of setting 

 women and children early in the morning and at 



nightfall to catch them, owing to these insects not 

 flying out in the day time. On cinchona estates 

 the leaves attacked by these insects and in whicli 

 they have laid their eggs are gathered together and 

 burned. 



TEA IN INDIA:— THE OPENING SEASON. 



Owing to the late opening of the rains in many of 

 the principal districts in Assam, the season will not 

 be an early one, and, perhaps, consiileriug that stocks 

 are so high, it is well that it should be so. Al 

 round the question is being asked, what sort of prices 

 are to rule this season ? When such good judges as 

 some of our best brokers were so much out last 

 year in their forecast, it is problematical to say how 

 prices will go. Another question which is agitating 

 the minds of planters just now is, what class of tea 

 to make ? It makes little difference into how many 

 classes a tea is divided, provided the manufacture has 

 been sound from the beginning and a sufhciently large 

 number of chests put into each break. Abuot 14 or 

 15 years ago in Calcutta, a poojaJi sale of 3,000 to 

 4,000 chests was looked upou as huge, and now-a-days, 

 several brokers sell more weekly, so that some idea 

 may be formed of the work they have to get through, 

 to meet the requirements of the trade. Besides a 

 very large quantity of the tea so dealt with is not 

 bulked, and so the labour is more than doubled. 



It is a difficult matter to keep even the best tea- 

 house entirely free from damp ; but a small tea hulk- 

 ing-house could be made not only impervious to damp, 

 but almost air-tight. As soou as the tea was made 

 without any assortment whatever, it might be passed 

 into this house, and there assorted into kinds and 

 packed into boxes. The temperature of the bulkiug- 

 house could easily be regulated by pouring the heated 

 air from the sirocco, or other dryer used, into the 

 house, if need should arise, or else conducting it 

 outside the building 111 a tube made with a closing 

 valve. In the case of using the sirocco, we mean the 

 new T sliape, the top trays would require to be 

 enclosed, this it seems to us, should prove no detri- 

 ment. In the first instance, when assorting the teas 

 into classes, there is no necessity to keep them long 

 exjjosed and lose aroma, lor they can easily be put 

 back into original boxes leaded and merely tacked 

 down here and there with a little solder. As soon 

 as sufficient is a.ssorted for an invoice, these solder 

 tips may bt; opened, and tlui whole tea thoroughly 

 mixed, finally fired, and packed ready for shipment. 

 It may bo objected that there is a great waste of 

 • te-i lead, and also that large bins capable of con- 

 taining 15 to 2U ehests art^ far more economical, but 

 it is contended, that they do not give the same re- 

 sults in retention of llavoiu- and now every day this is 

 becoming more essential, as tasting can scarcidy keep 

 pace with the reciuirementa of the trade. We have 

 it on fairly good authority, that many teas are bought 

 entirely by the smell, and in America this is a very 

 coninioul way. I'etentiou of aroma is thus a most 

 important consideration and deserving of careful at- 

 tention. In order to maintain the char.aoter of Indian 

 tea every care must be taken with manufacture, 

 else prices are sure to go down, and many concerns 

 are ([uite unable to stand a drop in prices. — hidiiDi 

 Flif/dir.f' Gazelle. 



HUMUS AS A CROP NUTRITIVE, 



The vindication of the character of hunms a.'? an 

 important source of crop nutrition — disparaged by 

 Liebig, with his mineral theory — may be said to 

 have resulted from the researches of M.M. Schlres- 

 ing and Muiit/., continued by Mr. Warrington, of 

 Rothanistf'd. TJiese chemists have fully demons- 

 trated the important action known as nitrific- 

 ation, carried on by bacteria to which the name 

 iiiierococcii^ nitriUcans has been given, the result 

 being the production of nitrates in soils rioh in 



