April i, 1886/J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



717 



Zca)an(l Sugar Company's estate at Ba. About 1,500 

 acres aro plaiUed, and "the mill will bejiin crushiug 

 iu June, by which time at least half the acreage will 

 be tit for ilir. rollers. The company can extend its 

 cultivation to 3,000 acres on its own land. — Aiistnil- 

 asiiiii. 



♦ 



NOHTHEEN TEKIUTOBY OF AUSTRALIA. 



The Minister of Education has received from the 

 Government Resident in the Northern Territory 

 (Hon. .T. L. Parsons) his report for the half-year 

 ended December 31st. 18S."). The Government Ke- 

 sidcTit says that the liberal land regulations in the 

 Territory "have induced very heavy stocking, and 

 the results throughout are highly satisfactory, large 

 nnnibers coming over the Queensland border. On 

 December 31st, 188.5. the number of sheep de- 

 pastured in the Territory was 40,000 ; of horned 

 cattle, 13(i,000 ; and of horses, Ci.OOO ; this number 

 is being increased weekly. It is believed that the 

 efforts made by Messrs. Fisher & Lyons to open 

 up a beet and dairy trade with Hongkong will 

 be successful, as the movement is being taken up 

 by various contractors in China for supplying the 

 Conmiissariat Department of the army and navy. 

 The Victoria Biver country is being cultivated with 

 good results. Pending the opening-up of the country 

 by the railway the mining industry is languish. 

 ing. Agricultural prospects are improving, but Mr. 

 Parsons says aU advances must be greatly retarded 

 till the railway works are started. With reference 

 to Stuart's tree. Mr. Parsons mentions that in all 

 probability there is very little hope of finding 

 the tree which Stuart marked when crossing the 

 continent or the tin box buried at its foot. 



THE TEA MOVEMENT IN CEYLON 

 continues to make wonderful strides, and there 

 is now computed to be under culiivation in tbat island 

 a sufKcient area to supply r<0 millions of pounds iu 

 the year. Seeing that the present output of India 

 is biirdly more than 'Cl millions, it is clear that the 

 competition is likely to be formidable. The present 

 advantages which iCeylon possesses are not few. Coffee 

 having failed, and cinchona not having turned o, so 

 successful as was hoped, owing to tlie under soi not 

 suiting the adult tree, land and buildings have been 

 selling very cheap, and the capitalists who have em- 

 barked in the new tea industry have been able to secure 

 houses , and plant of all kinds at a very low rate. In- 

 stances have occurred in which estates have sold for 

 less than the value of the buildings upon them. On 

 the other hand the land having been cultivated for 

 coffee for several years is in excellent condition for tea, 

 the coffee bush having in no way exhausted the soil of 

 those ingredients required by tea ; the roots ofthe two 

 bushes tap different strata, and the new plant finds a 

 well weathered tilth with abundant food. Then 

 again the climate is.'such that the leaf can be gathered 

 an the year round. A steady flow of tea of equnl 

 quality has set in, therefore, to the buying houses such 

 as the soul of the Loudon grocer loveth, for nothing 

 does "the trade " appreciate so much as a steady and 

 cert.iin supply of the same class of tea all the year 

 round, so that the cust mers may always be furnished 

 with what they have learned to like, and may never 

 accuse tliem of changing or adulterating the brand, 

 L:i»tly, tht re is a plentiful supply of skilled plantation 

 hibourand a se.iportdose at hand. At present the tea 

 is of excellent (luality, and fetches higher prices in 

 L"iidon markets thiii Indians of similar class, so that 

 the fi-trtunate Ceylon growers are making more per 

 pound profit than perhaps did the Indian planters in 

 their best day. Prosperity is showing signs of 

 breaking out in races and sports, bungalow furniture. 

 ho>pitality, and all the other healthy tokens of a 

 surplus income. I'bere is, however, fear that the day 

 of decline may come for tea as it came for coff»-e, 

 seeing that the Ceylon colfie planters took no pains 

 to lay up a supply of good ooil for future geuer- 



ations. The hill-side slopes were denuded of forest 

 and iu their hurry to be ricli the earlier devasta- 

 tors would not incur the expense of banking up or 

 terracing the vegetable soil which liad been found 

 under the fort.'st trees, and there is, thert-fore, inmost 

 parts, only a veneer of good soil on which to work. 

 How poor the soil is below is indicated by the decay 

 of the cotfee bush and the comparative failure of 

 cinchona ; and these precedents induce an apprehen- 

 sion that the life of the tea b\ush may not be long, 

 especially iis it is difficult for any plant in the world 

 to withstand the continued robbery or leaves to which 

 the Ceylon tea bush is subjected for eleveu months 

 out of twelve. Still the life will doubtless be ot 

 sufficient duration to influence very seriously the 

 price of all other tea in the world within tlie next 

 few 3'ears. — l^ioneer. 



-♦— 



PLANTING . IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 



A WONDERFUL OltCHID — HEAVY FLOODS AND DESIKUCIION 

 OF CROPS — HAD StIOAKCANE DISEASE. 



(Translated for the Sfrajf.'j Times.) 

 At the Government botanical gardens atBuitcn- 

 zorg there is now flowering an orchid of gigantic 

 size bearing the name Grainiiuitophi/lhtm spcci- 

 os»Hi, and displaying no less than twenty eight 

 flower stalks. Each of them is on the average 

 eight feet long. On one stalk alone, there are se- 

 venty flowers of which fifty were all open together 

 at one time. The (lower is generally Hh inches 

 in diameter. Each flower leaf is 2J inches long 

 and 1^ broad. The colour of the flowers is yellow 

 flecked with brown spots, while the curled edge 

 which, taking the size of the flowers into account, 

 is particularly small shows more of a copper colour 

 with brown stripes. The flower stalks which, be 

 it noted, are stiff mostly stand upright but the 

 numerous heavy leaf stalks hang down, some of them 

 being at least ten feet long. The flowers, like those 

 of most orchids, remain long fresh. This plant 

 grows on a tree about eight feet above ground and 

 has completely encircled its trunk. One peculiarity 

 in its mode of growth is that the numerous 

 roots all grow upwards slantingly, a peculiarity 

 which it has in common witli very few plants. 

 These roots, owing to their great number, form a 

 kind of parasol turned upside down. This cotn- 

 parison may not be quite accurate, but no better 

 is available. The leaves falling from above remain 

 hanging between these roots and decay doubtless 

 serving then as food for the plant. The latter 

 requires, so to speak, very little care. The only 

 looking after called for is indeed now and thou 

 to cut off decayed leaves or flower stalks. Even 

 in the dryest seasons, it has never any need of 

 water. The GrnmmatopliyUnm epeciosttm grows in 

 the jungles of West Java. It is the only one of 

 the species to be found throughout the whole is- 

 land. Mr. Hngh Low, the well known orchid grower 

 and importer, who visited the Buitenzorg gardens 

 a couple of years ago says that the Grammatophylluni 

 epeciomm is rarely found amoJig collections iu 

 England. 



Wide spread floods have caused such havoc and 

 distress at Surakarta and elsewhere in Mid Java 

 that relief counuittees have been formed for the 

 benefit of the sutt'erers. At Samarang the floods 

 recurring as they do every year have not been 

 dangerous to life but have been as bad as they 

 were years ago, when the situation pioved so 

 intolerable that a drainage canal had to be made 

 at an outlay of about one million of guilders, with 

 the result that, instead of making floods imposs- 

 ible, it has not even lessened the evil. 



The T.ocomolief, from which the foregoing part- 

 iculars arc taken, says that at many villa"e8 the 

 iloud marks reached the height of seven feet and 



