692 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1883. 



the 54 trees when they cease to yield, which may be at a 

 time wheu they bave reached a ciroumfereuee of 9 feet, 

 coakl be sold at 1120 each for the pla:!ks they would 

 yield, and may be louked upon as Rl,080. 



THE TEA TRADE OP 18S2. 



The f:jl', ■.'.-■ '^ report on the tea trade for the j'ear 

 lb82 IS from Messrs. W. J. & H. Thompson :—" The 

 results of the tea trade for the year 1882 have been 

 most unsatisfactory to importers, wliile the dealers have 

 been able to purchase nt cheaper rates than ever known 

 — in several clas.'-es below the cost of production. It 

 was thought that prices liad reached their lowest in 

 18S1, but the average for the past year has been lH to 

 20 per ceut less. The general trade depression will 

 account in a great measure for this, but it has been 

 aggravated by the early and hurried supplies from 

 Cbina, adding to the heavy stock in the warehouses on 

 the 31st of May ; and, further, by the anticipation of 

 an exccBsive increase from India. The quality of the 

 crop also, both from China and India has been 

 inferior from several districts ; but as regards 

 Indian, improvement in this respect is reported, while 

 the quantity will be less than wns expected. The 

 growth of the ludiau export from year to year must 

 exercise a marked effect upon the value of all good and 

 fine China teas, more especially as the consumption of 

 the former kitul u largely on the iucrcase. The ex- 

 tremely low prices latsly ruling lor cuuimon China 

 grades promise ^at length to check the total export, 

 and present estimates are 15 to 17 million lb. less than 

 last i-easou. This, coupled with improved deliveries, 

 should place statistics some few months hence in a more 

 satisfactory position." — Home and Coluiiial Mail, 



SUGAE. 



The Berlin Deutsche Zucker Industrie has ascertained, 

 " from the best source," that no alteration in the 

 German sugar duties, and, in particular, no reduction 

 of the drawbacks, will be made during the present 

 season-year, i.e., before the Ist August next, .'^ubject 

 to this, our contemporary surmises that it will be pro- 

 posed to reduce the export bounty from 9 marks 41 pf. 

 to 9 marks per centner of raw .'^ugar, and it is thought 

 that such a proposition is most likely to be agreed to 

 by a majority of the Reichstag. Ihis is equivalent, iu 

 round figures, to a reduction of about 5d, per cwt. in 

 the drawbacks, which appears to be n totally useless 

 change, if the German Government really desire to 

 stop the export bounty. There seems little doubt, on 

 M. Jacquemart's figures, that the German sugar duties, 

 which ought to yield about £3,000,000 a year, yield 

 only £2,000,000, iu consequence of the immense export 

 bounties. It is a fresh, and apparently undesigned, 

 extension of the new Protectionist policy of the Empire 

 that Germany should be enabled to supply Great 

 Britain with sugar Ss. under the cost of production. 

 Within a verj few years, at the present rate of increase, 

 something like a million tons of sugar would b.- ex- 

 ported frnm Germany, and the whole of the German 

 sugar revenue would then disappear, as it did more 

 than once iu Austria under a similar system. Pract- 

 ically, what German sugar is exported has to come to 

 England, the only important free and open market 

 either in Europe or in America. But on coming here 

 the subsidised German sugar has to compete with the 

 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 tons of cane and beet sugar made 

 elsewhere. In order to beat other sugars, the Germans 

 have to give away a portion of their bounty, the more 

 so, as their goods are made on a costly, though very 

 perfect system, and would therefore bein themselves 

 higher in price than, for instance, French sugars. As 

 the exports from Germany increase and arc forced off 



on markets already fully supplied, the makers must 

 give away more and more of their bounty, until a point 

 would ultimately be reached not only wUeu the bounty 

 is all given away, but when the manufacture leaves a 

 loss instead of a profit. This is a matter of certainty 

 sooner or later, on the ordinary grounds of political 

 economy, but that this ia not simply a theory is shown 

 by ti.e recent exuctlv parallel ease of the French ex- 

 port bounties on refined sugars, which led p-r.eisely to 

 these results. So far as Great Britain is concerned, it 

 would be absurd iu us to object to being supplied with 

 cheap German sugar. Our refineries are kept fully 

 employed, and if the German bounties go far enough, 

 our manufacturers will be able to es'ablish an immense 

 export trade, owing to their having the monopoly of 

 cheap supplies. Our colonists may no doubt suffer, and 

 suffer severely, from the German bounties, but so long 

 as many of them get less than half the net income they 

 ought to obtain from their cane fields, in consequence 

 of their wasteful system of manufacture, they are not 

 likely to receive much attention. Indeed, the best 

 thing that could happen for our West Indian Islands 

 would bo such a severe and long-continued depression in 

 refining sugar, as the German bounties seem likely to 

 bring about. Low prices would compel the planters to 

 adopt proper machinery, and, if once they did this, they 

 need not tear German exp irt bounties of even 3.9. per 

 cwt. About 200,000 tons of sugar a year, worth, at 

 £18 per ton, £3,600,000. are exported from the West 

 Indies, instead of the 500,000 tons, worth, at £23 per 

 ton, the relative price of properly-made sugar, 

 £11,500,000, which might be grown on the area now 

 cultivated, if modern m.achinery were used. The 

 difiference of merely £8,000,000 a year is simply 

 wasted. — Produce MarkUs Review. 



INDIA :— CROP AND WEATHER REPORT 

 FoK THE Week ending the 16th Jani'aky. 



General Bemarhit.. — There has been slight rain in 

 the Madras and Bengal Presidencies, in the Punjab, 

 Central Provinces, Assam, and in the Central India 

 States. In the I^orth- Western Provinces and Oudh, 

 the rainfall, although moderate, shows an improve- 

 ment over that of the week preceding, and has Ijeeu 

 more or less distributed throughout the country. In 

 the Bombay Presidency, British Burma, the Nizam's 

 Territories, and in Rajputana, there has been no rain 

 to report during the past week. 



Agricultural prospects are generally good or fair 

 throughout the country. But rain is still much 

 wanted in mist districti of the Punjab, and more is 

 also needed for the rabbi crop in the North-Westeru 

 Provinces and Oudh. The partial destruction of crops 

 by locusts lo Ratnagiri iu the Bombay Presidency 

 still continues, and some damage to the winter crops 

 by insects is also reported from two districts of the 

 Bengal Presidency. 



In the Madras Presidency and in Mysore and Coorg, 

 harvesting, chiefiy of rice, is still in progress ; in 

 British Burma aud Bengal the rice harvest has nearly 

 closed. In the Central Provinces and Northern ludia 

 the ordinary autumn crops are off the ground aud 

 are being threshed, and the cutting of sugarcane is 

 in progress. 



Madras. — No rain except iu Tanjore, Chiugleput, 

 Madura ; general prospects good, 



Assam (SijUiet, Jan. 17th). — Sali and amun crops 

 harvested; piospicts of winter crops, sugarcane aud 

 linseed good ; cholera reported from Sunamganj and 

 Karimganj. 



Mysore and C'ooj'fl.— Crops in the provinces in good 

 condition ; cutting of sugarcane commenced ; harvest 

 operations continue active ; prospects favourable ; 

 public health satisfactory ; no material change iu 

 prices. — Pioneer. 



