May i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



**5 



THE BONUS SYSTEM ON TEA GARDENS. 



At a meeting of the Indian Tea Districts Association; 

 held on the 25th Feburary, the above question referred 

 to in the following circular was discussed : — "Coolie Bonus, 

 Calcutta. Jan. 26, 1885. Dear Sirs,— With reference to 

 the General Committee's circular, dated 15th inst., on the 

 subject of Coolie Bonus, I am directed to hand you the 

 following resolutions, which it is proposed to submit to 

 the general meeting of the Association to be held on Feb. 

 26, 1885. Agents in Calcutta are invited to obtain the 

 sanction of the proprietors whom they represent both in 

 India and England, to enable them to support the resolu- 

 tions in question. 1st. That the payment of a Bonus 

 to time-expired coolies on re-engaging, or coolies en- 

 gaged from other Gardens under the Rules of the Associ- 

 ation, be entirely done away with from Oct. 1, 1885. 2nd. 

 — That no Garden shall employ time-expired or " falto " 

 coolies from Gardens belonging to the Association until 

 a period of one year shall have elapsed from the time 

 of their leaving the Garden on which they were last em- 

 ployed.— Yours faithfully, G. M. Bakton, Secretary. 



It was proposed by Mr. A. B. Iuglis, seconded by Mr. 

 J. Berry White, and carried unanimously, " That this 

 Association, while approving of an effort being made to 

 do away with the Bouus System, hesitates at present to 

 agree to its total abolition. It recommends that, in the 

 first instance, the bonus should be reduced, leaving the 

 amount of such reduction to be fixed by the several dis- 

 trict committees, care being taken to get districts adjoining 

 each other to act together in the matter, and to give 

 effect to any change agreed upon simultaneously. 



With regard to the second proposition referred to in 

 the circular, it was porposed by Mr. W. Roberts, seconded 

 by Mr. I!. Lyell, and carried unanimously : — "That this 

 Association desires to express its dissent from the second 

 proposed resolution forwarded from Calcutta." — Home and 

 Colonial Mail. 



FORESTS AND CLIMATE. 



At a meeting of the Meteorlogical Society of Berlin, 

 " held on January 6, aud reported in Nature, Professor 

 Miittrich gave a short historical review of the arrange- 

 ments in connection with forest meteorological stations 

 in Prussia, seventeen of which were in operation. They 

 were established on as uniform a system a.s possible 

 over regions of very wide varieties of climate, on plains 

 and at different levels above the sea, in districts having 

 a more continental, and in districts having a more 

 oceanic climate, and in leaf and Pine forests. In all 

 these places, moreover, observations were made according 

 to precisely the same regulations. Each station was 

 twofold, having one equipment in the wood, another in 

 the open field, both as a rule at the distance of 200 

 metres from the edge of the wood. The observations 

 comprised the atmospheric pressure, the temperature 

 of the air and of the ground, the wind, moisture, 

 •loudiuess, atmospheric precipitation, and the evaporation 

 of an open mass of water. These observations were 

 made twice a day — at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. The observ- 

 ations thus obtaiued were collected at the station of 

 Eberswalde, and published regluarly in monthly and yearly 

 reports. 



As a result of his investigation, Professor Miittrich 

 had arrived at certain definite conclusions respecting 

 the influence of the forest on temperature, which may 

 be stated as follows: — (1), The forest exercised a positive 

 influence on the temperature of the air; (2), the daily 

 variations of temperature were lessened by the forest, and 

 in summer more than in winter ; (3), the influence of 

 the leafy forest was in summer greater than that of the 

 Pine forest, while in winter the tempering influence of 

 the Pine forest preponderated over that of the disfoliaged 

 forest. An attempt to determine the influence of the 

 forest on the moan annual temperature led to no sure 

 results. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



CATARRH OF THE BLADDER. 

 Stinging irritation, inflamation, all Kindey and similar 

 Complaints, cured by "Buohu-paiba." W. E. Smith & Co.. 

 Madras. Sole Agents. 



104 



NOTES ON TEODUCE THE TEA TRADE. 

 A reform in the customs of the tea trade are being 

 advocated in some quarters. The present system of 

 deposits and payment for tea is thus condemned by the 

 Grocer : — The terms now recognised in the tea trade 

 for buying and selling are the same as have been in 

 force for the last 50 years or more, anil the merest tyro 

 in the wholesale line knows very well that in other 

 respects immense changes in the mode of conducting 

 business have taken place during that period. The value 

 of tea in, say, 1830, when the Customs duty alone was 

 2s. per lb., was much greater than it is now, and a 

 deposit of £1 per chest was of less significance than 

 at present, when it is almost enough by itself to pay 

 for the article bought. As, therefore, the deposits on 

 a parcel of tea of different sized packages represent a 

 larger proportion of cash payments than they did in 

 former years, the risks attending a tampering of warrants 

 are multiplied fourfold, and in case of a dispute as to 

 who is the rightful owner of the tea when the buyer 

 has paid the required deposit, and the warrants are in 

 the custody of a second or third party, it would be a very 

 nice point for the lawyers to settle among themselves, 

 if not to the entire satisfaction of the unfortunate 

 disputants. These would be the importers and their 

 selling brokers, the bankers who find the requisite 

 financial accommodation pending the final disposal of the 

 teas, the wholesale dealers, and their fri»nds the 

 retailers. All would claim some ownership, and if the goods 

 had partly passed into the hands of buying hrokers as 

 well, the question would be still more intricate and 

 complicated. Anyone who is the least conversant with 

 the trade can, from his own experience, easily picture 

 to himself the consequences which must inevitably arise 

 from tea warrants getting into the wrong hands when 

 immediate delivery of the goods is demanded for the 

 consumer. The delay and inconvenience to the retailer 

 would also be a very serious matter, and anything that 

 can be done to obviate one or the other ought to receive 

 the approval of the whole trade. For instance, deposits 

 might to abolished altogether, the same as they are 

 practically on sugar and coffee, and instead of the prompt 

 on tea being three months, as now, it might advantageously 

 be shortened to one or two months, with the allowance 

 of a discount when payment is made punctually on the 

 prompt day. The import merchant not having to wait 

 so long for his money, would not, as he often does now, 

 have to seek the assistance of his broker, and what he 

 pays him would, we should imagine, more than suffice to 

 allow the dealers a fair discount on all payments made 

 prior to the day of prompt. If an honest and timely 

 effort is made to work out some reform in the system 

 of dealing in tea, more security in their position as 

 holders will be felt by both buyers and sellers, and future 

 disputes and entanglements may be happily avoided. — 

 Home and Colonial Mail. 



PLASTER. 



DY SIR .7. B. LAWES, F. E. s. 



The influence of plaster upon clover and other legum- 

 inous crops has been explained in a variety of way6, 

 none of which are quite satisfactory.. Quite a new ex- 

 planation has been brought forward by a French chemist. 

 M. *Pichard has been investigating the action of various 

 compounds upon the nitrification of the organic matters 

 in the soil. He tried the sulphates of potash, soda, 

 magnesia, also chalk anil gypsum, and found that gypsum 

 nitrified the organic matter to a far greater extent than 

 any of the other substances ; gypsum being 100, the other 

 substances would range from 45 to 12^. Another French 

 chemist, M. Joullie, has been investigating the ln^s of 

 ammonia which takes place during the fermentation of 

 barn-yard manure. He says there may be a loss of 20 

 per cent of the ammonia, this loss being due to the 

 decomposition of the ammonia contained in the drainage 

 water, aud this loss is largely increased by the addition 

 of plaster. If this be true, the beneficial effect of plaster, 

 when used in stables, must be due to the destruction, 

 and not the fixation, of ammonia. M. Pichard considi r 

 that the beneficial influence of gypsum upon Lucerne 1 



