January i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



553 



The "T. A."— A planter writes :— "Kandy, 16th Pec. 

 — I feel very much interested in the T. A. I like it 

 very much indeed, and only wish I had had it from the 

 beginning, this I would have done too if I could have 

 afforded it, but circumstances, not my will, have seen 

 fit to step in and ordain it otherwise." 



Tea of very good quality is said to be grown at the 

 Andamaus. A small supply received at Rangoon met 

 with ready sale. It is thought that if tea is more ex- 

 tensively grown and manufactured in the convict estab- 

 lishment, the demand among the Burmaus will soon set 

 in. China tea up to the present moment is largely con- 

 sumed in Buruiah. — Madras Standard. 



Tea Machinery ; Kelani Valley, 14th Dec, — 

 With reference to the notice that appeared in your 

 issue of the 12th instant, referring to Mr. "Gore's Tea 

 Sifter" I understand that a like delay in putting out 

 of hand Mr. "Kerr's Tea Roller" is taking place.* 

 Messrs. Walker & Co. are rot in a position to 

 manufacture the machines of eith r of the above gentle- 

 men, owing to some arrangement come to between 

 them (Messrs. Walker & Co.) as Messrs. Jackson's 

 agents for Tea Machinery in this country, and the 

 Government Factory are rather slow. 



Tea. — The Indian Tea Gazette claims " that India 

 is now not only master of the situation as regards ex- 

 cellence of quality, but that, in the matter of price, 

 also, we are gradually becoming conquering competitors. 

 An old vested interest like that of China takos a long 

 time dying ; but dying it surely is, and it only needs 

 that we should still persevere and persevere in enhanc- 

 ing quantity (out of a like area,) while still maintaining 

 quality ; reducing to the lowest safe minimum produc- 

 tion cost ; availing ourselves of all the knowledge 

 around us which can in any way be utilized for our 

 advantage ; and joining ' hip, heart, and hand' with 

 our brethren in the tea industry in any and every way 

 that may conduce to the general good."- Madras Mail. 



Java — -The Locomotkf of the 22ud Nov. reports the 

 price of sugar in Java to be steadily falling with every 

 prospect of becoming lower still hereafter. It is no 

 better wi'h quotations for coffee, though for a while a 

 slight improvement was manifest on the strength of 

 rumoured short Brazilian coffee crop this year. The 

 Netherlands India Commercial Bank, when on the 

 point of suspending payment, which would have brought 

 aboii 1 : a widespread mercantile crisis, succeeded in 

 warding off the danger by raising a loan amounting to 

 nine millions of guilders, aud making over the estates 

 under its management to a newly started planting 

 company in return for its co-operation in advancing 

 the ah 'Ve amount. 



In Deli, of late, on several of the smaller estates, 

 the planters, to save the expense of employing coolies, 

 have been letting their land to Chimse tobacco- 

 growers whom they supply with seedlings or small 

 advances in order to buy up from them the crops so 

 raised. The Deli Plauters' Association on the ground 

 that these small growers might prove dangerous, as 

 receivers of stolen tobrcco leaves from the regular 

 estates, has decided upon forbidding this 1c ting 

 By si em among its members. The Batavia Daqblad 

 deems this decision a wise one on wholly different 

 grounds, baaing its opinion on experience gained in 

 Java where the system of landholders buying up 

 tobacco from small growers instead of cultivating the 

 article ou their own account has been baneful to 

 tobacco cultivation there, by keen competition among 

 buyers in furnishinu' higher and higher advances to 

 growers, or in the buying at high rates tobacco for 

 which others had given advances or seedling. The 

 latter form of dishonesty has proved ruinous in its 

 consequences. 



* Mr. Kerr, wo believe, has several orders now on hand 

 waiting to be attended to for customers. — Cor. 

 69 



Java, 20th Dec— The Samarang LocomotieJ of the 

 15th Nov. states that this year's sugar crop in 

 Java is an overflowing one. Thus, on one estate. 

 the yield has been 50,000 piculs against 40,000 

 last year. Owing to the low quotations ruling for 

 sugar, six guilders per picul even being offered for 

 No. 16, cane growing has been relinquished on 

 twelve estates in Java. The Colonial Bank has 

 obtained leave to suspend payment for a month 

 owing to the heavy fall of sugar in value. The 

 Netherlands Indian Commercial Bank was on the 

 eve of doing the same when timely assistance enabled 

 it to tide over difficulties for the present. 



Tea. — The Produce Markets' Review makes the following 

 complaint : — " The quantity of Indian tea brought forward 

 has not diminished, but the quality of the supplies has been 

 decidely inferior to previous sales. A much larger propor- 

 tion of common teas has been offered, and as these have 

 to compete with cheap common China Oongous, the Indian 

 sorts have sold slowly at lower rates. Many of the teas 

 brought forward this week have been almost devoid of the 

 strength which has hitherto given Indian growths their 

 superiority over those of China. This applies mainly to 

 the lower qualities of whole aud broken leaf, and the in- 

 fusions of many of the former are at present singularly 

 weak compared with those of teas previously offered." 



Sugar. — The prospects of sugar planters everywhere, and 

 those in the West Indies in particular, are about as bad as 

 they can be. The average yield of actual sugar from the 

 beetroot in Germany is returned in Herr Light's annual re- 

 view, recently published, as follows: — 



1883-4 10-75 per cent. 



1S82-3 ... ... 9-9 ,, 



1881-2 9-9 



1880-1 8-85 ,, 



1879-80 8-55 „ 



The yield from the cane in Barbadoes, a material contain- 

 ing 18 to 20 per cent, of saccharine, is 6k percent, of sugar, 

 so badly made that by the time it reaches England it is 

 reduced by drainage to 6 per cent, of the weight of the 

 cane. The beet growers thus get two-thirds more out of 

 their raw material than Barbadian planters do, and against 

 such a vastly increased yield, the very cheap production 

 of the West Indies cannot hold its own, even if there 

 were no bounties. — Rome and Colonial Mail, Nov. 21st. 



The Flora of northern Formosa is rich and abun- 

 dant ; t e ground being plentifully covered, except 

 in the ueighbouihood of the sulphurous streams, 

 with Indian lilies, rosea, orchids, rhododendrons, 

 tree-ferns, and a host of other unprotitably gay 

 plants of tropical growth. The farna, too, is ex- 

 tensive, and, with the exception of cobra-capellas 

 and centipedes, possesses nothing that the French 

 invaders need concrrn themselves about. But prob- 

 ably Admiral Courbet will prefer confining his 

 operations to the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 Keelung coal mines to advancing into the jungle re- 

 treats of these reptiles. He certainly will Hud quite 

 enough to occupy him at the pits' mouths if he 

 intends to work the coal. By the latest accounts 

 we learn that the Chinese have fired the principal 

 mine with kerosene oil, and have thus destroyed 

 the entire plant of foreign machinery as well as 

 burned out an immense quantity of coal. This mine 

 his been work d under the superintendence of Mr. 

 Tyzaek, an English mining engineer, for the last 

 ten years ; aud betweeu IS74 and 1879 yielded the 

 following very creditable results :— 1874, 15.221 tons ; 

 1875. 27,665 tons; 1876, 31,593 tons; 1877, 28,948 

 tous; 1878, 25,788 tons; and 1879, 28,823 tons. If, 

 tuning from the burnt-out foreign mine, Admiral 

 Courbet should direct his attention to the other 

 pits, he will find them equally unavailable. Water, 

 the enemy which next to fire is most dreaded by 

 miners, has by long neglect been allowed to accu- 

 mulate in the workings to such an extent that only 

 after much tribulation would he be able to fill bis 

 bunkers from their seams. — St James's Gazette. 



