470 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1882. 



Hence whilst the cereal crop will have a composition that 

 is regulated chiefly by the kind of grain grown, in the 

 meadow grass the nature of the individual grasses sown 

 does not so much affect the composition of the hay as 

 raatm-ity, soil, and season. 



It is evident, therefore, that, when laying down permanent 

 pasturage, it will not do to sow all the best seeds, and 

 leave the rest to Providence. One must suit one's seeds 

 to the soil, and the manures to the special kind of grasses 

 one wishes to grow. Even then all the extra trouble is 

 lost if, from want of hands or from the desire to obtain 

 a larger crop, the grass is allowed to get over ripe. — Field. 



THE TEA INDUSTRY OF JAPAN. 



There are features in the tea trade of Japan which are 

 full of interest as commercial facts, as well as having an 

 important bearing on our tea industry. In the first place, 

 tea has been grown and highly cultivated there from time 

 immemorial, although tiie proper manipulation and export 

 of the prepared leaf is of comparatively modern date, 

 say of the last sixteen years. There are many plantations 

 in the neighbourhood of Yeddo with tea plants on them 

 whose recorded age is three hundred years, and in the 

 garden of the Mikado there is one said to be a thousand 

 years old. This latter is, however, a veritable tree 

 from which the leaf is no longer taken, but the others 

 continue, at their great age, to give steady crops of leaf. 



But thi.se harvestings from ancient plants, for plants 

 they continue, are the results of continued high cultivation 

 by means of manure and working of the soil, at which 

 the Japanese are adepts. In Japan, as in China, the tea 

 plant is never grown on steep land as it would then bo 

 impossible to manure it sufficiently, and moreover the wash 

 from heavy rains would be detrimental. The Japanese 

 preserve most carefully every particle of vegetable and 

 animal rt-fuse, all night-soil and stable manure^ without 

 wliich it would be impossible to obtain successive crops 

 from the same plants for such long periods. The system 

 of irrigation in Japan is likewise most perfect, and by 

 these united means the land is maintained in constant 

 fertility at all periods of the year, and, as a consequence 

 of the invariably vigorous state of the plants, disease or 

 infertility is unknown amongst them. Notwithstanding 

 this high cultivation, the yield of leaf does not appear 

 to be so large as might have been expected ; but it must 

 be remembered that the islands of Japan are situated in 

 north Latitude 30 ° to 40 ° , and that the tea districts of 

 Yeddo are situated in about 36 ° N. Lat. where, during 

 the winter months, the cold is sufficiently great to produce 

 frosts, consequently there can be no flushes from October 

 to March. This is shewn by the fact that there are but 

 three pluckings in each year. The first of these takes 

 place in April, when the youngest and finest leaves are 

 gathered ; the second gathering takes place in June, and 

 a third in August. At each of these gatherings the leaves 

 are larger :md coarser and are used for the manufacture 

 of a lower grade of tea. We have no data to shew the 

 yield of tea laud per acre, but with only three pluckings 

 yearly the annual produce can scarcely be so large as 

 that in India, or in our own case, where four hundred 

 pounds weight of dry leaf have been taken in per acre, 

 as on a portion of the Galbodde estate. 



The export trade in tea has not declined, and, as for 

 losses having been made, most of the business done is 

 by American houses of agency with America, has been 

 on comioission alone, and there is no other export trade. 

 Of the fact of adulteration having been practised of late 

 years by the admixture of leaves of some other plant 

 than tea, there is no doubt ; and adulteration which is 

 carried on by the Japanese growers and which may, if 

 not checked, exercise a prejudicial influence on the trade 

 with America. Mr. Sibthorpe, the Calcutta Syndicate's 

 Agent, who lately visited the United States, alludes to the 

 fact of adulteration, as also to what is stated to be 

 indifferent preparation, and he believes that these facte 

 are paving the way to au extensive business in Indian 

 teas for the New York and other markets. 



The most interesting fact, howevei, to which we wish 

 to direct attention in reference to the .Japan tea industry, 

 is that, whilst the growth and harvesting of the leaf are 

 entirely in native hands, the final preparation, manufacture, 



and packing of tea are carried on by European or American 

 experts ; moreover, this manufacture is conducted at large 

 central factories in the immediate neighbourhood of Yeddo 

 and Yokohama, fifty or sixty miles distant from the places 

 of growth, a procedure which has been hitherto considered 

 as impracticable by Ceylon growers. It appears that the 

 cultivators give the leaf a partial firing, sufficient to keep 

 it for several months, and in that state, without any further 

 manipulation such as rolling and full firing, the natives 

 of the country have been in the habit of using it. It 

 was only on the settling of American citizens in the country, 

 and the qualities of this imperfectly prepared tea becoming 

 known to them, that a thorough manufacture of the article 

 was taken in hand by them. 



The tea finally fired, rolled, and packed, by Americans 

 thoroughly conversant with the trade, very soon attracted 

 attention in the United States, where there is now an 

 annual consumption of about forty millions of pounds, the 

 larger portion of which is green tea. This has been going 

 on for about sixteen years, and there are now a dozen 

 firms at the Japanese ports engaged in the business. These 

 purchase the half fired leaf from middlemen, who collect 

 it in the tea districts, and from this crude material, by 

 judicious and careful treatment, the required grades of 

 tea are produced, and packed in boxes of a light, symmetrical, 

 and convenient make, when they are covered with light 

 matting, and a fancy imprint or label in colors, to catch 

 the eye of the trade purchaser, is fastened over one side. 

 "We are assured by a gentleman recently engaged in the 

 Japanese tea trade, that if oiu- tea shippers to the States 

 desire to make any way in that market, they must pay 

 the utmost attention to the "get up" of their packages; 

 the boxes must be light and well-made, uniform in size, 

 and instead of being roughly marked or coarsely labelled 

 as though they were wine or beer cases, they must be 

 neatly covered with something like artistic effect. These 

 remarks entirely agree with what Mr. Sibthorpe has written 

 from New York, and it will be well if Ceylon shippers 

 to that and other markets, bear them in mind. The Japan 

 teas are not likely to make their way in Europe, being 

 far too poor in liquor to suit those markets. The citizens 

 of the States appear to be well pleased with the light- 

 colored, delicate flavored teas sent them from Japan, and 

 it will probably take some time before our stronger flavored 

 teas find much favor in the States ; the more necessary 

 therefore will it be that the packages in which the tea 

 is shipped be such as will commend themselves to the 

 eye of public, ever taken by appearances. — " Ceylon Times." 



EUCALYPTOGRAPHIA.* 



By the publication of another decade of his Eucalypto- 

 graphia. Baron von Mueller has added a valuable contribu- 

 tion to the botany of Australia. It is well known to the 

 students of the vegetable kingdom that no genus is more 

 perplexing than that of Eucal>T)t-us, and that no systematical 

 arrangement of the species has yet been effected which is 

 not open to objection. A work, therefore, like that of 

 Baron Mueller's, which is recording from all parts of Aus- 

 traUa the peculiarities of our Eucalypts, their geographical 

 distribution, their alliam.-es with each other, and the extent 

 of their variation, may be regarded as an in.stalment towards 

 the solution of a most difficult problem. Of the species 

 indigenous in Australia, the Baron has now furnished 

 descriptions and figures of 80 well-defined forms, some of 

 which have already obtained a local habitation and a name 

 in the third volume of the "Flora Australiensis," whilst 

 others, as will be seen, ia the present decade, are new to 

 the scientific world. 



(1.) The first species of the present series is E. cordata, a 

 shrubby plant from tht; south-east coasts of Tasmania, 

 ascending to elevations of 1,600 feet above the sea-levi-l. It 

 derives its specific name from its heart-shaped leaves, and 

 resembles E. pulveruleuta, or the "Argyle apple," in the 

 southern parts of New South "Wales. It differs, however, 

 from tliat species iu beinj,- restricted to places near the coast, 

 whilst the size of the tre e, as u-ell as the shape of the aeed- 



* EuCAL-iTTOGEAPHiA : A descriptive Atlas of the Eu- 

 calypts of Australia and the adjoining Islands, by Baron 

 Ferd. von Mueller, K.O.JI.G., M. and Ph. D., F.R.S., Goveru- 

 ment Botanist for the Colony of Victoria. Eighth Decade. 

 Melbourne: John Ferris. &c., 1882. 



