88o 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1883. 



rutten leaf arid large quantity of rubbish mixed up 



•witli the teus must have been jjurposely introduced 



to increase weight aud bulk. 



When in Calcutta I saw some very similar samples 



tested by the leading firm of brokers aud tea tasters 



there, and their report was as follows : — 



" A small proportion of fairly made and fermented 



leaf, mixed with old infused aud re-coloured leaf, dirt, 

 dust, and rubbish ; valuation nil. These teas are 

 quite unfit for consumption here." 



Lots 6, 7, 30, 33, 53, 54 (pekoes) appear better, haying 

 a considerable quantity of oolong pekoe leaf mixed 

 up with a emaller proportion of rotten coloured leaf, 

 rubbish, &c. The unpleasant flavour is somewhat 

 disguised by the large proportion of scented leaf inter- 

 mixed. The improvement is, however, more in appear- 

 ance than substance, as these teas, I find on examin- 

 ation, have an extreme proportion of stalks and dust, 

 and are mixed with nodules of gum, rubbish, colour- 

 ing mutter, and other impurities. 



As it may interest you to know the system usually 

 adopted by the Chinese for colouring exhausted black- 

 leaf teas, st»lk3, &c., I subjoin a short memo, of the 

 method taught by the head Chinese tea-maker employed 

 In the AsNiim Company some years ago : — 



' A quantity of the old branches and useless leaves 

 are collected from the bottom of the tea plants and 

 poundi-d into a pulp in a rice-pounder or mortar, then 

 tied up in a cloth and put in a hole in the ground to 

 ferment for a few hours. When sufficiently fermented 

 the pulp is placed in a large tea-pan, and boiling water 

 poured on it. Jt is then allowed to boil until two- 

 thirds of the water have evaporated. Then liquor is 

 strained oft', a proportion of gum and colouring mixed 

 and the exiiaustcd leaves and stalks steeped in it as 

 long as considered necessary. The renewed tea is then 

 partly dried, lightly rolled, and finished in the sun 

 or on heated plates." 



TRINIDAD BOTANIC GARDENS : 



Tonga-bean; Cola-nut; Ceaea' Rubber. 



A report by Mr. Prestoe, Government Botanist of Trini- 

 dud, was published in the Trinidad Royal Gazette of 

 November 1882. Under the heading Tonga-bean Mr. 

 Prestoe sayx : — "There are large examples of this valu- 

 able tree in the Botanic Gardens, which aflbrd 

 evidence of the habit of growth of the tree and 

 its requirements under the usual couditions of soil 

 and climate here, and which in some districts ap- 

 pear to be exactly similar to those of the Tonga- 

 bean districts of Venezuela. In the face of the com- 

 mercial value of the Tonga-bean arising from a wide- 

 spread aud ever-increasing appreciation of its use in 

 Europe and United States, as a flavouring in art- 

 icles of enormous consumption which come under 

 the head of indispensable luxuries as well as the 

 more necessary food product — cacao. The price has 

 already reached $2 per lb. Its cultivation in this 

 Colony may be regarded as of the highest prospect- 

 ive importance and value ; the more so as the tree 

 will thrive in laud altogether too poor for cacao 

 or sugar, aud the forming of plantations (as with 

 cacao) would have the great attendant advantage of 

 maintaining the climatic and other conditions of 

 characteristic of full afforestation (without its attend- 

 ant drawback of malaria) so important in tropical 

 agriculture, on land which once cleared is very liable 

 to lapse into useless "blush," or "jungle overborne with 

 malaria." Regarding the cola-nut Mr. Prestoe says : 

 —"As may be expocted, the price of the article has 

 lately taken a s«dden rise, and there is active en- 



quiry from tropical agriculturists as to the character- 

 istics of the tree beariut; the Cola-nut aud its pro- 

 pective value as a subject for cultivation. As such 

 it may be regarded only second in importance to 

 the 'J'onga-bean. The general character of the tree is 

 that of a strong growing cacao tree attaining the 

 height of 30 or 40 feet with proportionate spread, 

 aud beginning to bear about the same age. Unlike 

 the cacao as to requirements, however, it flourishes 

 in comparatively poor soil and in exposed situations. 

 The Cola- nut tree has been long grown in these 

 Gardens, the original tree being now sixty inches 

 girth, aud from young trees put out during the last 

 few years a very good idea of the disposition and 

 habit of the tree as well as its requirements may 

 be gained by those desirous of attempting its cult- 

 ure. The young plants progress satisfactorily with- 

 out shade, if planted in moderately good soil, but 

 in poor soil or dry situations, the usual shade af- 

 forded by plantain cultivation is advantageous or even 

 necessary. The cultivation of the Cola-nut tree will 

 therefore be of the simplest possible character. No 

 particular as to soil, bearing full exposure, growing 

 quickly from the large seed, the only are required will 

 consist of suppressing native bushes of more rapid 

 growth than it, and when matured and fruiting, to clean 

 off the surface growth to facilitate the collecting of 

 the seeds as they fall on the ground. Briefly, it 

 will be a cultivation of a similar character but of 

 much less cost than that of cacao, and suitable for 

 land that may too dry or poor and exposed for that 

 valuable cultivation. The process of planting up land 

 abandoned as too poor for provision or other cult- 

 ivation, or indeed any 'rastr'o' land would be the 

 same as recommended for the Ceara-rubber tree ; only, 

 the Cola-nut would not thrive in such a poor con. 



dition of soil as that tree." As to vanilla we read: 



"The value of the produce of Vanilla from a few 

 square yards, is so considerable that the rental of 

 any house may be realised by Vanilla culture in the 

 court yard, provided there be means for 1° maintain- 

 ing a chequered shade or a diminished sunlight — to 

 one third of that it usually is : 2° a few hard- 

 wood posts and bamboo laths for horizontal trellises, 

 and such vegetable matter or rubbish as is usually 

 met with in yi.rd or street— including, specially, horse 

 di-oppings; the trellising being of course for support, 

 and the rubbish — mixed with the surface soil— being 

 the compost for the nourishment of the roots, and 

 through them the sustenance of the plant." Of Ceari 

 rubberMr. Prestoe writes: — "This rubtier yielding plant, 

 which is really only a gigantic form of Cassada, is 

 specially adapted for cultivation in dry gravelly hill- 

 sides. It has enormous power of root development and 

 penetration, growing luxuriantly during the wet months, 

 and becoming dormant and leafless in the dry 

 season when the milk-sap is of great density. It 

 thus shows its adaptability for poor soil and arid 

 situations ; indeed the production of a satisfactory 

 ' rubber' very largely depends on these conditions, 

 for with trees in the gardens on moderately good 

 and moist soil, under rapid growth as occurs in 

 the wet season, the sap is watery and shows scarcely 

 a trace of rubber globules. The cultivation of this 

 tree is therefore a prospectively valuable one for 

 the poor gravelly soils of the northwestern hill slopes. 

 No pieparation of I he ground will be necessary be- 

 yond the reduction of useless and encumbering vine 

 or bush growth : such trees as may be u.seful as 

 timber or otherwise being left as shelter against the 

 squalls of the wet season — the Ceara trees being 

 somewhat heavy headed and brittle when in full growth. 

 The young Ceara trees can then be planted — by la- 

 bourers using ordinai-y grubbing hoes — singly wherever 

 a space of 12 feet occurs among the indigenous trees 

 left." 



