614 The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



COTTON GROWING SN CENTRAL AS? A. 



Relief Work on 5,800,000 Acres for Russian 

 Unemployed. 



Our St. Petersburg correspondent writes : — 

 By reason of its anxiety to improve the econo- 

 mic situation, and to give the unemployed 

 f.omething to do, the Russian Ministry of Fi- 

 nance is said to be in a complaisant humour 

 at the present moment with regard to the 

 granting of concessions ; and it is now consider- 

 ing, among other things, the proposition of a 

 group of capitalists, with a well-known financier 

 at their head, who have applied to the Govern- 

 ment for a grant of about 2,01)0,000 dessiatin 

 (one dessiatin equals 2'70 acres) in the Hungry 

 Steppe, Central Asia, in order that they may 

 try cotton cultivation there on a large scale. 

 The concessionaires demand nothing more from 

 the Government than the kind; which they 

 desire should be granted on condition that they 

 irrigate it. If they succeed in growing cotton 

 there — where cotton was undoubtedly grown to 

 a great extent in ancient times, for traces of the 

 old irrigation canals still remain — it i.s calcu- 

 lated that Russia can supply herself with all the 

 cotton she wants, and need not, therefore, spend 

 75 million roubles abroad every year in buying 

 it. It is calculated that the irrigation works 

 will cost 50 roubles per dessiatin, that is 50 

 million roubles for one million dessiatin. While 

 admitting the necessity for carrying out cotton 

 cultivating experiments in Central Asia, the 

 Russ objects to such huge areas of land as two 

 million dessiatin being handed over to any 

 gompany. The experiment would, it thinks, end 

 in corruption and swindling, — Economist, May 9. 



PUMELO. 



May -26th. 



Deak Sir, —One hesitates to enter the lists 

 against so well-recognised an authority as Mr 

 Donald Ferguson, but in a matter about which 

 there is still some doubt one might be per- 

 mitted to make a suggestion. 



Given two names, French and English— 

 Pamplemousse and Pumelo— I do not quite see 

 why there need be any connection between 

 the two, or why we should try to evolve the 

 latter from the former ; though it may be true 

 that we have some extraordinary English cor- 

 ruptions of foreign names, witness Jerusalem 

 artichoke, where Jerusalem is merely a cor- 

 ruption of the Italian Girasole. Whatever 

 may be the derivation of pamplemousse, may 

 we not assign to the word pumelo its simplest 

 and, to my mind, most reasonable derivation, 

 via,, from pomum (fruit) and me'o ( melon) «• 

 pomum-uieio, melon fruit, an appropriate 

 enough name for a large succulent fruit not 

 unlike a melon in appearance (cf. tree melon, 

 another name for the papaw, and pomegra- 

 Hate=seedy fruit. )--YoUrs truly, 



0. D. 



P.S.^-l have, since Writing the above, dis- 

 covered that I have good authority for the 

 gtb^Ve derivations—CD. 



INDIAN TEA ASSOCIATION. 



Royal Exchange Building, Calcutta, 19th May. 



[We extract from the proceedings of a meet- 

 ing of the I T A general committee held on the 

 above date : — 1 



Correspondence with the Indian Tea As- 

 sociation, (London). — A letter of 1st May from 

 the Secretary, Indian Tea Association, London, 

 which had been circulated, was now brought Up 

 for final consideration and disposal. 

 Exports of Tea from Northern India to Ceylon, 



Sir James Buckingham referred to a matter 

 that has been before the General Committee in 

 connection with the exports of tea from Nor- 

 thern India to Ceylon ; these have recently in- 

 creased very considerably and in 1907 amounted 

 to over six million lb., and the Committee have 

 been endeavouring to ascertain how these are 

 treated on re-exportation from Ceylon — whether 

 as Indian or Ceylon exports. With this in view 

 they asked the Collector of Customs, Colombo, 

 whether he could supply them with monthly 

 statements sho.ving the quantities of Indian 

 tea transhipped at that port, as it is 

 thought that a vory small proportion of these 

 teas are consumed in Ceylon. The Committee 

 were informed by the Collector that a monthly 

 return would not give the weight of 



THE TEAS 



transhipped, as this weight was not recorded 

 in Colombo, and that merely a note of the 

 number of packages was kept ; but they asked 

 him in reply to favour them with these monthly 

 statements as they thought that even the 

 number of packages alone would give an indi- 

 cation of the quantity transhipped ; and in 

 his letter of 1st May Sir James Buckingham 

 suggested that the same estimated average 

 might be taken for these teas as that taken 

 by the London Tea Brokers' Association for 

 London— 106 lb. for chests and 60 lb. for 

 half-chests. The Collector of Customs has, 

 however, now replied that although a 

 statement might be furnished as regards teas 

 deposited for transhipment in Customs premises 

 particulars could not be given for teas tranship- 

 ped direct from vessel to vessel, as some firms 

 manife3t all cargo as 'merchandise' or 'packages' 

 and tranship them as such in their applications. 



Although the Committee anticipated that, as 

 a result of the new direct services that have 

 been arranged between Calcutta and Vladivos- 

 tock the quantities of tea requiring to be tran- 

 shipped at Colombo will probably not be very 

 great in the future, it was agreed that it would 

 be useful to have a monthly statement of these 

 if possible, and after discussion they decided to 



COMMUNICATE WITH THE CEYLON CHAMBER Of 

 COMMERCE 



and ask them whether they oould give 

 any assistance in the matter. It was also ar- 

 ranged to apply to the Collector of Customs, 

 Calcutta, to see if he could supply the Associa- 

 tion with the information required. 



Assam Labour. 

 , Mention was made in the proceedings of 10th 

 March last of the appointment of a Sub-Corn* 

 mittee to consider the question Of a Central Re" 

 gruiting Agency; and the report of the Sub-Com- 

 m.ttee w&s now submitted. This recommended: 



