896 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



RUBBER IN MOZAMBIQUE. 



Reporting on the trade and commerce of 

 Mozambique, Mr. Consul Maugham refers to 

 the exports of rubber and to the "cooked" 

 quality of much of it. Hamburg has been 

 for many years past the market for Mozam- 

 bique rubber of this quality, a steady demand 

 having existed there for all qualities. During 

 1905-6 the British Indian dealers were induced 

 to buy very largely from the native quarters, 

 and the increased demand has given rise to 

 much adulteration by these latter, who have 

 not scrupled to mix all manner of foreign 

 bodies with the latex and to such a large 

 extent that consignments exported instead of 

 realising Is 6d to 2s 3d per lb., as they did 

 for so long, were found on arrival in Europe 

 to be either unsaleable or were disposed of at 

 6d to 8d. At the present time, Mozambique 

 " cooked '■ rubber is not marketable in Ham- 

 burg or London, while several sellers have 

 endeavoured to dispose of their depreciated 

 stocks. It is felt to be most regrettable that 

 the export of this article should have been 

 permitted, as the prices realised in the centres 

 mentioned do not serve to cover expenses of 

 freight and customs, and large sums have been 

 lost by local Indians from this cause. — Journal 

 of the Royal Society of Arts, July 17. 



A CAMPHOR PEST. 



An account of an insect attacking the camphor 

 trees in Perak is published by Mr. Jacques 

 Surcouf in the Journal D' Agriculture Tropiealc, 

 June 1908, page 186. The sample of leaves and 

 insects were sent by M. Geraud of Papan, 

 Perak, to the Colonial laboratory of the Museum 

 (presumably at Paris). The insects were iden- 

 tified by M. Heylaerts as one of the Psychodidaj, 

 Eumcla Rekvieycri, Heyl. The caterpillar fixes 

 itself on the lower side of the leaves and eats 

 the parenchyma, cutting out circles which it 

 winds round the lower part of its body so that 

 the animal appears to be enclosed in a flower or 

 little pagoda. The caterpillar in pupating spins 

 a cocoon which in the males is furnished with 

 a prolongation to allow the pupa to move about. 

 The male moths are black or brownish, and 

 are very eager in searching for the females which 

 are wingless and do not leave the cocoon. 



The author says that though the Psyehodid 

 moths have never caused great damage, it must 

 be remembered that the fields of the Loire 

 (France) were ravaged by an insect of this group. 

 All the same every planter or gardener here 

 knows too well these troublesome little insects 

 which are as pestilential a group as one canimeet. 

 protected some by silken cases, others by little 

 hat-shaped cases made of bitten-out leaf or 

 sticks, and, usually attacking a tree in great 

 numbers, they are most difficult to exterminate 

 as no insecticide affects them directly and hand- 

 picking is often the only remeily. 



H. n. it. 



•—Agricultural Bulletin, for Sept, 



RUSSIA'S CAUCASIAN TEA. 



English Company to Handle it. 

 Our Russian correspondent writes :— A state- 

 ment on the tea plantations of the Caucasus 

 appears in the Pharmatzevtiteheshy Journal, 

 which says the plantations are to be found on 

 the Black Sea shore, in the district of Batoum, 

 some versts from the town. They belong to 

 Mr. K S Popotf. In the year 1892 this area was 

 covered with unbroken virgin forest, but now 

 it is beautified by three fine tea plantations. 

 The story of the Caucasian tea industry is then 

 rapidly traced from its origin in 1847 (when M 

 S Vorontzotf transplanted a number of the trees 

 from the Crimea Imperial Gardens to various 

 parts of the Eastern Black Sea coast), through 

 numerous experiments up to 1896, when the 

 Appanage Department of the State began to 

 cultivate tea on an extended scale. 



Expeditions were organised, and visited the 

 world's tea-producing countries, and the com- 

 mittees concluded in favour of the Batoum dis- 

 trict as fulfilling the conditions they found 

 where tea was largely grown — particularly 

 China — and now these views have been amply 

 confirmed by 14 years' practical working. Many 

 trees were brought from China, Japan, Ceylon, 

 Himalaya, Assam and Java, and seeds also from 

 China, etc., and on January 14th 140 dessiatines 

 (1 dessiatine equals 2.7 acres) were planted with 

 1,000,000 China trees, beside what was being 

 reared in nurseries, numbering 3,000,000. Com- 

 parisons made between the tea produced in the 

 Caucasus and that produced in Ceylon all show 

 clearly in favour of the Caucasus, says the jour- 

 nal. After a 13 years' trial the Caucasian fields 

 yield 146 lb. an acre to 14 lb. only from the 

 Ceylon plantations — ten times less. It is now 

 stated that the prospects are so encouraging that 

 an English company will be organised to handle 

 the industry. — Financier, Aug. 1 1. 



[The above figures indicate how little care 

 has been taken by the Russian journal to 

 get at the facts of Ceylon yields per acre.] 



TEA MANUFACTURE. 



LABOUR SAVING AND ECONOMY BY 

 THE USE OF CHARCOAL. 

 Charcoal-dried Tkas May Go Dr. 

 Mr J R Farbridge, the Eastern Director of 

 the Tyneside Foundry and Engineering Co., 

 aud one of the inventors of the Chula Tea Drier, 

 claims to have convinced a "fair number" of 

 estate managers in several of the Ceylon tea 

 districts of the economical advantages to be 

 derived by first converting the estate jungle 

 into charcoal — by doing this on some estates 

 half the present consumption of wood-fuel 

 would be sufficient to dry the present crop 

 of tea — and then using it in the Campany s 

 drier. The methods adopted in Ceylon are 

 not, he considers, satisfactory. The best 

 charcoal contractor in Ceylon — we read in a 

 contemporary— was an old Sinhalese man in 

 Dolosbage, who had been trained by Mr 

 Blackett, late of Dolosbage. He made it in 

 a scientific manner as in the Black Forest, 



