454 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1884. 



of referring to Signoret's paper * (which is in the 

 annals of the French Entomological Society) con- 

 taining the original description of Helope&tis. I do not 

 suppose that paper is in Ceylon. That the insect should 

 prove to be native, to the island is perhaps on the whole 

 a matter for satisfaction ; as experience teaches us that 

 organisms which have in course of time established a balance 

 with their surroundings in nature have less opportunity 

 for sudden and great increase in numbers than is the case 

 with many introduced species which find their new 

 environment to be in their favour. But, no doubt, our 

 cultural operations do much to upset or modify the easily 

 influenced equilibrium which has resulted from ages of a 

 complicated strife. — I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



HENRY TKIMEN. 



EARNINGS OF INDIAN TEA COMPANIES. 

 A list of twenty-three Companies has been pub- 

 lished by Mr. Ernest Tye. the aggregate capital 

 of which is £2,483,907 ; total acreage 42, 355 ; average 

 capital per acre £58 ; total crop 13,177,522 lb. ; average 

 yield per mature acre 311 lb. ; average cost per lb. Is: 

 average value per lb. Is 3d ; profit per acre ranging 

 from nil to £9-3-7 ; average dividend 5 per cent. In 

 seven cases, however, there was no dividend, while 

 as regards the rest the dividends ranged from \ p> r 

 cent to 14 per cent. The capital per acre ranged 

 from £25 to A'lOO, £11G, £117, and even £143! Of 

 course it is not likely that on an expenditure of £143 

 per acre a dividend will ever be received. The table 

 is of permanent interest to Tea planters and will be 

 embodied in full in the Tropical Agriculturist. 



SUGAR : PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION. 



The discussion over "bounty-fed sugar" and the 

 West Indian grievances has drawn forth a report from 

 Mr. Giffen of the Board of Trade, which puts in a strik- 

 ing way, the extraordinary progress of the sugar trade : — 



The production and consumption of sugar have increased 

 enormously in the last 30 years. According to Messrs. 

 Rueb and Ledeboer, who omit certain outlying countries, 

 such as India and China, the increase in production in 

 the countries they enumerate is from 1,423,000 tons in 

 1853-55 to 3,564,000 tons in 1SS0-82, aud to over 4,<JOO,0()0 

 tons at the present time. The increase in each decade 

 over the previous one is 30 per cent, and the amount of 

 the increase has consequently also increased, the annual 

 production in the whole of the British West Indies and 

 British Guiana in 1877-79 was 5,200.000 cwt. ; in 1880-S2 

 it was 5.540,000 cwt. ; and in 1883, 6,80-2,000 cwt., equal to 

 200,0<i0, 277,000, and 295,000 tons. In recent years the 

 beet-producing country which has advanced most is Ger- 

 many, the increase being from 509,000 tons in 1880-S1 to 

 840,000 tons in 1883-84. Austria-Hungary, which formerly 

 was most complained of in the matter of bounties has de- 

 clined in the same period from 498,000 to 415,000 tons. 

 In France, which is not alleged to have given bounties on 

 production in the interval, there is an increase from 3:13.000 

 to 425,000 tons. The consumption of sugar in the United 

 Kingdom has now reached the enormous total of 1,083,000 

 tons, equal to 681b. per head of the population. This re- 

 presents an annual expenditure by the people of the 

 United Kingdom on the article amounting to £30,000,000, 

 or about half the amount spent on bread when the whole- 

 sale price of wheat is under 40s per quarter. The con- 

 sumption has increased from 15 lb. per head in 1840, and 

 the article from being one of luxury has become a material 

 part of the food of the people, its magnitude being ap- 

 preciable even when compared with wheat. It is a fallacy 

 to represent all beet sugar as bounty-fed, and to ascribe 

 the increase in beet production exclusively to bounties. 

 The bounty being on the export only, the maximum quantity 

 of beet sugar receiving bounties cannot be more than the 

 exports from the bounty-giving countries, Austria, Ger- 

 many, and Belgium, amounting to 700,000 tons, or about 16 



*The abbreviation "Sgnt." for this writer was mis- 

 printed " Lynt." in my report (par. 3) as given in Tropical 

 Agriculturist f or Oe$. (p. 328) where also Ctapaidae is given 

 Qutpida. [We shall note these for errata.— Eu.] 



per cent out of a total production, according to Messrs. Rueb 

 and Ledeboer, of 4,200,000 tons, and about llj per cent 

 of the absolute total production of 6,000,000 tons. If it 

 is argued that all beet is more or less stimulated by the 

 bounty, then a bounty of £3 per ton, calculated on 700,000 

 tons, would amount to £1 per ton only on 2,000,000 tons, 

 the total beet production, and would be too insignificant to 

 have the effects alleged. There is no pretence for saying 

 that if the incubus of bounties were removed natural sources 

 would not at once be developed to supply any void caused by 

 the diminution of bounty-fed production. 



HOME PAPERS ON PLANTING NEWS: 



PHYLLOXERA — QUININE SYNDICATE — BRITISH HONDURAS — IN- 

 D1ARUBBER — COFFEE CONSUMPTION AND NEW FIELDS. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of the following 

 "exchanges" from which we shall quote fully into the 

 Tropical Agriculturist : — " Gardener's Chronicle" under 

 date Oct. 16tr. ; " Field," Oct. 11th; "Pharmaceut- 

 ical Journal," Oct. 17th; ; "Society of Arts Journal," 

 of Oct. 17th, which has an interesting article in the 

 "Pine ForestB of North Carolina" — forests which in 

 their sombre dreariness and monotony we found to 

 extend with but few breaks along the eastern railway 

 route through both North and South Carolina, part of 

 Georgia and even into Florida ; " Journal of Horticult- 

 ure," of Oct. 16th ;" Nature," of Oct. 16th, from which 

 we learn that Messrs. Spon have in the press "an Elec- 

 trical Supplement" to Mr. Molesworth's well-known 

 "Pocket Book of Engineering Formula?"; and from which 

 we take the following piece of news: — " Phylloxera is 

 making steady progress in the Rhenish vineyards it 

 seems. The pernicious insect has now been found 

 on the right bauk of the river, in the vineyards of 

 Castle Ockenfels near Linz, where over 100 acres are 

 infected. State aid has been asked for at BerliD, 

 as the occurrence of the pest near Linz is far more 

 serious than that in the Ahr Valley." 



"The Chemist and Druggist" of Oct. 15th has some 

 curious information about Kola-nuts and from which 

 we learn of a new "Quinine Syndicate" as follows: — 



"Quinine Syndicate, — Objects: To purchase and 

 prepare the cinchona bark, aud to carry on the 

 business of quinine manufacturers. Capital 1,500?., 

 in 10/. shares. Signataries : S. Howard, 35, Queen Vic- 

 toria Street, 1 share; S. Grady, Dashwood House, 

 25 ; W. Tryett, 32 Great St. Helen's, 25 ; P. M'Fudzer, 

 Madras, 25 ; H. B. Arl.utbnot, 33, Great St. Helen's, 

 25 ; A. C. Walter?, 44, Elm Park Gardens, 1 ; S. 

 Jennings, Westbury House, Denmark Hill, 1. Regis, 

 tered without articles of association by Ochme and 

 Summerboye, 167 Giesham House." 



The Field of October 11th has a long paper on 

 British Honduras by "Alice de le Plongleon " from 

 which we quote a paragraph referring to the good 

 work done by the late Governor, better known when 

 Mr. F. Bailee as the energetic Colonial Secretary of 

 Western Australia where wc saw evidences of his energy 

 in 1875:— 



His endeavours to develop the fruit trade having proved 

 very successful, Sir F. Barlee obtained a contract from 

 Messrs Mackeca, of New Orleans, for more frequent steam 

 communication with the United States, with the result 

 that, in 1881, no less than seventy-eight steamers had 

 been to Belize, instead of one steamer a mouth as formerly, 

 and that a 500-ton steamer could come every two weeks 

 and find a full cargo of fruit. 



( >ne of the last things done in Belize by order of the 

 late Governor nearly created a revolution, in spite of its 

 wisdom. The burial ground was not a great distance from 

 Government House, and, as the sandy soil was quite shallow, 

 the graves could never be dug as deep as is desirable for 

 the health of a community, so that the remains were often 

 submerged by the water, which is in many places near 

 the surface. The consequence of this was that, when the 

 wind blew from the south, very offensive odours were 

 wafted into Regent-street. To obviate this unhealthy 

 nuisance, brick vaults were made, in which every body 



