974 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Tune i, 1883, 



put it into a bottle and sliake it well until the whole is 

 dissolved, then apply it to wood on metal, which will give 

 a varnish of great lustre and beauty. The resin should 

 be fii'st melted and strained through coarse calico or a 

 sieve, to free it from impurities. 



6. J'enwnia imtlielminiica, Willd. — This plant is cultivated 

 by the Suihalese and is iu great repute as a remedy, which 

 is indicated by its name. 



The sti:..s aiu black, of a bitter and nauseous taste are 

 easily procured from bazaars and are commonly used by 

 the village people for expelling the ascaris lumbricoides 

 and act as a vermicide. 



The dose of the powdered seed to au adult is from J to 

 1 drachm. 



The native physicians prescribe it generally as a tonic 

 in the shape of au infusion. 



The Sinhalese name is saniie nayan and the Tamil name 

 kadoseragam. 



Em'opean practitioners in India, from personal observati- 

 ons, confirm the truth of the above statement. 



7. Ahtoiiia sclwlm-is, E. Br. — In 1865 I forw;u-ded to 

 England, to my friend and correspondent, Mr. P. L. Sim- 

 mouds, the Editor of the Technologist, specimens of a kind of 

 caoutchouc, as a substitute for gutta-percha. 



The following information supplied by me appeared in that 

 periodical for August 1865 : — 



"Another substitute for gutta-percha, the milky juice of 

 the Ahtonia scholaris, a tree belonging to the natural order 

 Apocyneie, has been forwarded from Ceylon by Mr. Ondaatje; 

 it is stated to possess the same properties and to be work- 

 able as gutta-percha. It readily softens when plunged in 

 boiling water, is soluble iu tm-peutiue and chloroform, receives 

 and retains impressions permanently, and is adapted for seals 

 to documents." 



The balk of this tree is thick and spongy. Its properties 

 as a medicinal agent are fully described iu the Pharmaco- 

 pcoia of India*. 



8. Acorus Calamus, Linn. — The well-known sweet flag I 

 merely notice as an anthelmintic, which property is not in- 

 cluded in the Indian Pharmacopceia. 



Au infusion of the rhizome or root stock given to young 

 children acts effectually, as I have seen many such cases 

 treated among the natives. 



THE BULKING OF INDIaN TEAS. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE "HOME AND COLONIAL MAIL." 

 Sir, — There appeared iu the London Times of the 24th 

 ult. under the above heading, an article ' 'From a Cor- 

 respondent," iu which the writer professed to examine 

 the grievances which the Indian tea planters have 

 through the Indian Tea Districts Association, lately 

 laid before the Secretary of State .for India. This cor- 

 iespondeut offered certain criticisms on the points re- 

 ferred to iu our memorial and on the situation gen- 

 erally. I trust, by your courtesy, to be allowed to 

 reply to these remarks. In the first place, the cor- 

 respondent admits that the grievances in question are 

 "not wholly groundless," though he adds "the remedy 

 should probably be sought iu another direction," and 

 that the presint treatment of Indian tea "inflicts a 

 serious burden ou the trade, not only through the 

 expense, but the destruction of the c/tests and their con- 

 tents." The only differeuce between us, then, is the 

 direction iu which we are to look for a remedy. From 

 the evidence afforded by the correspondent's letter, 

 it i5 clear that he is practically unacquainted with the 

 conditions under which the great Indian tea industry 

 is carried on. He has also misunderstood and incor- 

 rectly set forth the planters' case in affirming that 

 "what the planters claim is that one or two chests 

 only out of a 'break' shall be opened, and the tare so 

 found apply to the whole." The sole burden of the 

 planters' prayir is that the tea shall be weighed, and 

 the tare — that is to say, the weight of the empty 

 package, whether box or chest— shall be disregarded. 

 All the buyer demands is that the tea iu a given num- 

 ber of packages shall be of even quality and ascertained 

 weight, .Neither the one or tbo other has hitherto 



commanded the attention of managers generally for 

 the simple reason that while it is by no means difficult 

 to procure woods suitable for the construction of 

 cases that will serve the essential purpose of preserv- 

 ing the teas in a sound condition till they reach the 

 hands of the retail dealer has beeu found difficult, 

 costly, and uncertain, to construct these covering 

 shells so as to ensure an even tare weight on arrival 

 in Loudon, i. e., that the cases when weitjhed empty 

 shall be found of uniform weight. This being so, 

 the plan followed iu the case of China teas of find- 

 ing an average weight of the break or chop by tar- 

 ing a few test chests, fails to be applicable to Indian 

 teas, and the whole of the chests have to be emp- 

 tied of their contents, and each tared separately. The 

 teas are then bulked and replaced in the cases, the 

 importer getting credit for the quantity actually found 

 irrespective of the Indian weights. Thus buUung and 

 exact weighmeut in India are rendered practically 

 useless unless the third condition of even weight in 

 the empty cases is secured ; hence the appeal of 

 the planters and importers that this vexatious and 

 uncertain factor should be replaced by the more in- ' 

 telligible and exact method of weighing the tea itself 

 in a certain proportion, say from 5 to 10 per cent, if 

 found necessary, of test chests to determine the aver- 

 age weight of the break.* Upon the adoption of this 

 simple change of usage hangs the solution of the 

 question whether bulking in India shall become the rule 

 instead of the exception, and the teas be preserved 

 from the deterioratiug treatment they are no«' sub- 

 jected to in the London warehouses. The advice giren 

 to "take a leaf out of the Chinese book" evidently 

 implies a complete misapprehension of the difference in 

 the working conditions of the two countries, a difference 

 on which mainly depends the superiority of Indian 

 over China tea. In China the cultivation is carried 

 on in a thickly populated country by villagers, each of 

 whom has his little patch of tea, and it obviously suits 

 his purpose better to dispose of the produce, whether 

 green leaves or crudely prepared tea, to a collector 

 possessing the means and appliances for completing 

 the manufacture ou a large scale. In India, on the 

 contrary, the cultivation of tea is almost entirely iu 

 the bauds of Europeans. The gardens or plantations 

 are not individually small as is stated, but consist of 

 blocks ranging from hundreds to thousands of acres in 

 extent. The different estates, however, are frequently 

 widely separated, rendering the adoption of the Chinese 

 system of "hongs" utterly impracticable even if it 

 were desirable. Naturally, therefore, each individual 

 estate has to provide its own "plant" iu the shape 

 of rolling and sorting machinery, buildings, &o. Many 

 estates produce yearly 500,000 1b. of tea, several make 

 1,000,000 lb., while the famous old Assam Company 

 turns out 2,500,000 lb. per annum. The distinct Havour 

 and characteristics of different marks of Indiau tea 

 are due to the varying soils and methods of treatment. 

 Were it possible to follow the advice of a cox-respond- 

 ent, and blend the teas of all the Indian gardens, a 

 result would be obtained such as would follow the 

 mixing of all the wines of a vine growing district — a dull, 

 undesirable uniformity. 



Indian lea planters understand their business tho- 

 roughly, and desire to retain the high reputation they 

 have gained for their produce. All they ask is that 

 they shall not be hampered by unnecessary and vex- 

 atious trade restrictions. — lam, &c., 



Ernest Tye, Secretary. 



»Here is the whole heart of the matter. Indiau and 

 Oeylou planters cannot secure boxes of precisely simil.nr 

 weight, but surely, if 5 or 10 boxes out of 100 g.ivc a certain 

 hwteigof tea, the eustomeis and purchasers might well bo 

 asfiedtis to take the average. — Ed. 



