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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1884. 



Assam. These forests clothe the hills which form 

 the boundary between Iudia and China, and it is a 

 fair assumption that the plant or its seed was 

 thousands of years ago exported from India into China, 

 where it baa become an important industry. Tea 

 has not been cultivated in India for many years, 

 the oldest company, called the Assam Company, 

 having been founded in 1840. It is now cultivated 

 in a doz-n different parts of India, hundreds of miles 

 apart, srain beiog on the North East or East, others 

 ou the North West or South of India. The chief 

 tea producing countries of India are Assam, Cachar 

 and Sylhet, Chittagong, Chota-Nagpore, Darjeeling, 

 Dehra Doon, Dooars, Kangra, Kumaon, Neilgherries, 

 and Ceylon. Upwards of 240,1100 acres of jungle 

 have been cleared by our countrymen in India and 

 planted with tea, employing over a quarter of a 

 million people in the cult.vation. Most of the 60 

 million lb. of tea annually sent home is manufact- 

 ured by machinery — models, specimens, or drawings 

 of the ingenious machines for rolling the green leaf, 

 firing and sorting the tea, are to be seen in the 

 Indian exhibit. 



For several years Indian tea was little knoivD, 

 and not much was produced. Now (1884) India 

 sudplies fully one third of the entire consumption 

 of the United Kingdom. It is principally used by 

 the trade to give strength and flavour to the teas of 

 other countries, thereby covering their deficiencies. 



It is not much known by the public who distin- 

 guish tea oimply by price. 



Toe following table shews the growth of the trade 

 in Indian tea, and speaks eloquently of the appreci- 

 ation it has secured. 



In 1860, out-turn about 1 million lbs. 



„ 1864, „ 3 



„ 1874, „ 18 



,, 1S83, „ 60 „ 



The whole consumption of the United Kingdom in 

 18S3 was 170 million lbs., of which over one-third 

 was Indian. 



You are recommended to ask your tea dealer for 

 pure, i. e., unmixed Indian tea. 



Cups of Indian tea are sold inside and outside the 

 Indian Court at threepence each, including a biscuit. 

 Upwards of 5,000 cups have been sold in the first 

 fortnight— which ought to help to popularize Indian 

 tea. — Home and Colonial Mail. 



TEA IN VICTORIA. 



The latest and perhaps the most impudent excuse 

 put forward by those anxious to reduce the standard 

 quality of teas admitted into Victoria is that the 

 exclusion of inferor descriptions wrongs the poor 

 man, for whose special use they are imported. As 

 it is understood that this argument has been strenuously 

 urged ou the Commissioners of Customs who have 

 held office since the passing of the Tea Act, it may 

 be well to show— wholly apart from other grounds 

 upon which its fallacy could be proved — that it is 

 absolutely untrue. Assuming that the commonest 

 kind of tea sold in Victoria is retailed to the con- 

 sumer at Is. 3d. to Is. 6d. per lb. — and very few 

 persons are really found purchasing at the first 

 named price — we have a starting point to work from 

 which will be plain to everyone. Now a good 

 common clean congou can be purchased wholesale 

 at from 9d. to 9Jd. per lb. in bond, the duty is 3d. 

 per lb., making the cost to the distributor 12d. to 12id. 

 duty paid. Thus it will be seen there is a margin 

 of profit to be divided between the retailer and 

 middle house from which he purchases of from 25 

 to 50 per cent, a return, one would think, sufficient 

 to satisfy both. Apparently this is not the case, 

 for the lea Act and the authorities, as well as„that 



section of the press who are opposed to the wage 

 earning portion of the community being duped, are 

 railed against as offering obstacles to the admission 

 of teas worth from 4d. to 5d. per lb. The parties 

 who take up the cry are just those who seek, not 

 to benefit the public but their own pockets. Tea 

 that cost duty paid 7d. to 8d. per lb. would leave 

 100 per cent to be divided between themselves and 

 the retailer, and hence we have the real caU3e of 

 the present outcry against law, impure and exhausted 

 teas not being admitted. — Melbourne Age. 



THR GICNERAL FIBRE COMPANY, LIMITED. 

 The gentleman, formerly a plauter in Ceylon, who 

 is connected with the above Company, and who has 

 kept us informed of the progress made, writes by this 

 mail : — 



"I last wrote you about the 1st May. As then pro- 

 mised, I am posting to you today somo copies of our new 

 pamphlet on our fibre-cleaning and other machinery in 

 which we are interested. I also send a copy of Dr. Forbes 

 Watson's lecture at the Society of Arts, with extracts from 

 his reports to Goverumeut on rhea at the end, and 

 which I feel sure will interest you. The pamphlet on our 

 fibre machine gives fullest particulars up to the present 

 date. We will shortly be at work in Belgium on hemp 

 and flax, and I shall send you results. A considerable 

 number of machines have now been shipped to India and 

 will be at work soon." 



The p imphlet sent to us deals not only with the 

 " Universal Fibre (.'leaning Machine " but also with a 

 New Patent Rice and General Grain Decorticator. 

 Improved Emery Patent Saw Cotton Gin, with New 

 Patent Condenser. 

 New Patent Safety Capstan Bullock Gear. 

 Improved "Persian Wheel" Water Lift. 

 So that the Company have laid themselves out for 

 the provision of machinery for very various purposes. 

 They also receive fibre for disposal As our readers 

 are aware, there is no question of the fibre machine 

 with the aid of a jet of cold water doing its work 

 well and turning out a beautifully clean fibre. The 

 difficulty in Ceylon, as elsewhere, has been to get 

 paying quantities cleaned in a day. The Company 

 truly state that much depends on the percentage of fibre 

 in the substance operated on, the adjustment of the 

 machine and the expertuess of the workmen em- 

 ployed. Where the percentage of fibre runs from 

 3 to 5 per cent, the chances of paying results are 

 good if other conditions are favourable ; but where, 

 as in the case of plantain stems, the fibre is not 

 equal eveu to 1 per cent, it is worse than useless 

 to persevere in attempts to obtain paying results. 

 The Company enumerate the chief substances from 

 which an appreciable percentage of fibre can be 

 obtained : — 



This machine extracts and cleans the fibre of the 

 Rhea, Jute, Hemp, Agave, Pine-apple, and New Zealand 

 flax plants, as well as all other fibre-producing stalks and 

 leaves, when operated on in the green and freshly-cut 

 state. 



The fibres of the great majority of plants in the green- 

 growing condition are naturally white in colour, they 

 become discoloured subsequently from the action of their 

 juices under exposure to the sun and air, as also during 

 the rettiug process to which many of them are now 

 subjected, and which has frequently the effect of weaken- 

 ing them as well. These juices or saps in the fresh-growing 

 plants, before they have reached their full maturity, 

 contain the various gums and colouring matters in a state 

 of solution, and are removed by means of cold or tepid 

 water, but hot water or steam coagulates wadjixes certain 

 of the gummy substances in them, and also sets the colour- 

 ing matters on the fibres in a manner which often renders 

 it impossible to prepare the fibre afterwards in a satis- 

 factory condition. 



