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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1882. 



An Agri-Horticultural Exhibition ik Colombo 

 is likely to be arranged for the month of May next 

 under Governor Lougden's patronage. A Conunittee 

 has been appointed in Madras to arrange for an Agri- 

 cultural Exhibition to come o£f there in February 

 1S83. For this Exhibition, which will be confined to 

 a" Ticulture, a Government grant of PJG.OOO has been 

 mule, and it is intended to call the attention of Aust- 

 ralian and American as well as English authorities to it. 

 The Causes of Low Prices for Tea, are thus 

 noticed by the Indian Tea Gazette:— * 



And first comes in China, which must ever be the 

 oreat disturVjing element. It is a fact that China teas 

 have lar'erly improved considerably,— or rather as it 

 should more correctly be put, China has sent better 

 teas forward to the London market. At the same time, 

 unfortunately, the quality of our teas this season has 

 not been generally ol: a high standard. Home buyers, 

 therefore, have shown a tendency to veer round to their 

 old love— China, from whose teas, as being cheaper, 

 thev can make the most money. They believed in and 

 required Indian teas so long as they were over and 

 ahove all others m strength and quality, because these 

 were needed for admixture with poor and cheap China 

 grades ; but when the latter are supplanted by im- 

 proved qualities, dealers begin to think they can, to a 

 larger extent than formerly, do without Indians. That 

 is one cause of the decline, this season, of prices. But 

 there is another reason, and that is the quantity pro- 

 duced. It by no means follows, however, as it has been 

 affirmed, that this is due to over-plucking. Natural 

 causes at work lead to an inevitable increase of quantity, 

 and this has tended to bear down the market. We 

 have not availed ourselves to the extent that we should 

 have done, of the Australian and American markets, 

 and the ridiculous spectacle has been lately seen of 

 Indian teas shipped to London being re-ehipped from 

 there, at a considerable profit, to Austi'alia. But all 

 this profit has gone into the pockets of Mincing Lane 

 buyers, and not into those of Indian owners. But there 

 is a third and more potent reason for the prevailing 

 depression in prices, viz., in the quality of this season's 

 growth. This defect has been almost general, and 

 therefore can partly be ascribed to climatic conditions. 

 Planters have not become less skilled than they were, or 

 less miudful of the necessity for making good tea ; but 

 if, as has been the case lately, larger quantities of 

 leaf come iu than have been reckoned upon, and you 

 cannot fiie off fast enough, the inevitable result will be 

 inferior tea. It is not every tea factory that possesses 

 the requisite provibiou for an unexpected yield, and in 

 fact most factories are provided only for a minimum 

 out-turn. The argumeut is, therefore, that the vianu- 

 facturimj capabilities and facilities of every estaie which 

 de»ires 10 do well should be kept at the highest poict 

 Extensions go on, plants come into maturity, yield 

 inevitably increases, but the Tea-house accommodation 

 more olten than not remains the same, and proprietors 

 only spend money in enlurging their buildings and plant 

 when they find they cannot posdbly help it. The fact 

 should be recognized in advance, that all the appliances 

 for manufacture should precede the increase of yield, 

 and be arranged for in time to meet that increased yield 

 when it comes. What we have to do, it seems to us, is 

 to keep up our standard of quality to the highest 

 figure. lo do this, every effort should be made to 

 provide adequate factory accommodation and appliances. 

 We du not believe tluit cither agents or brokers have 

 recommended coarse plucking this season, but a certain 

 amount of leaf is necessary to make a garden pay. It 

 won't do to make, as a Director once suggested, "all 

 pekoe." We must steer between the two extremes. We 

 must "get a fair amount of leaf, and must manufacture 

 that up to the highest point of excellence, and those own- 

 ers «ill do wisely who provide their managers with 

 faotoiiea suited to the growing capacities of their gardens. 



The "Tropical Agbiccltueist." — A 3Ionthly Record of 

 Information for Planters. (Colombo, Ceylon: A. M. ^ J. 

 Feri/iisun:)—'i!he planters of India and Oeylon have an able 

 paper in the Ayricultiirist. It is deserving of commend- 

 ation from om- point of view for the closeness with which 

 it adheres to its own special sphere, and for the careful 

 aud exhaustive manner in which subjects connected with 

 the planters' occupation are arranged and dealt with. The 

 information contained iu reference to the cultivation of 

 coffee, cocoa, sugar, palms, rice, &c., is of special interest 

 to the Enghsh reader, but with respect to the rise of the 

 trade in cuichona our interest is considerably heightened 

 by the present admitted position of this bark in the British 

 pharmacopueia and the boon which it confers from its 

 medicinal qualities, not only in the treatment of human 

 ailments, but those of animals also. For in dealing with 

 diseases of cattle, sheep, horses, and dogs, cinchona bark 

 alkaloids are just as valuable as in the case of human 

 patients. It has been the best friend that the emigrant, 

 the traveller, or the soldier ever had. In the swampy 

 and malarious regions of the earth, as well as in the hot 

 alluvials, and deltas of the tropics, it is an agent of relief 

 to the suffering. We are not surprised, therefore, to learn 

 from the periodical before us that the commerce in cinchona 

 is flourishing in India, Oeylon, and Java. The exports 

 to this country in 1877 amounted only to 3,912,000 lb., 

 valued at £402,000. In foiu- years' time, however, that is 

 in 1881, the exports had increased to 14,024,000 lb., valued 

 at £1,812,000. Meanwhile the price had risen from 2b. 

 per lb. to 2s. 7d. In conclusion, we may say that the 

 Tropical Ac/riculturist contains an abundance of facts, 

 discussions, and statistics of quite as much importance 

 to the botanist as to the agriculturist.— ia«rf, London, 

 October 7th. 



Hybridization of Plants. — The Gardener' a Chronicle 

 says that, whatever general rules anatomists and 

 physiologists may lay down, the pracUcal cultiv- 

 ator has to take into account individual peculiar- 

 ities. A hundred and one varieties may own one 

 common parentage, but very many of these are 

 as distinct as, and even more so than, many re- 

 puted good species. Our contemporary continues : — 

 "This was a vexatious anomaly, not to be explained 

 in pre-Darwinian days. It seems simple enough now 

 in these days, when the significance of variation is 

 appreciated, and the process of evolution can often 

 be seen in action. But it certainly does require us 

 to attach to the word "species" a very elastic, a 

 very arbitrary— shall we say Pickwickian sense ?— or 

 rather we are constrained to use the term as one of 

 convenience only, and to admit that what we choose 

 to call species and those groups which exist in Nature 



that is, if they really do exist — are often widely 



different. The test of a species is more difficult to 

 find than ever. If we adopt community of origin 

 we have often no proof of the alleged fact, and we 

 have no means of knowing bow far l>ack we have to 

 go to find the common parent or of tracing all the 

 descendants and their intermarriages. If we take ler- 

 tiUty as the test, that proves a fallible guide too, 

 f.ir every hybridizer knows that cross or hybrid fer- 

 tillizition between some species is much more certain 

 than self fertilization or the union of plants of the same 

 species." Grafting also affords no better test, as is 

 instanced by the yellow currant forming a good 

 stock for the gooseberry, while the red currant 

 refuses to bear its near ally. As instances of the 

 effect of individual peculiarities within the lim- 

 its of the same species, the potato and roses are 

 quoted, the varieties being so great, and the 

 effects of disease on those varieties being so dif- 

 ferent. Our contemporary concludes as follows: — 

 "i'he' relative hardihood of plants derived from the 

 same source is also markedly different. Such inst- 

 ances are so familiar as to need no illustration ; but 

 they one and all point to the necessity for keen 

 aud persistent processes of selection on the part of the 

 gardener." 



