August t; 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
117 
Oolcng Black Tea. — A Kobe (Japan) native paper 
sa y S : — Mr. Fuju Katsutaro, who stopped a long 
time in Formosa with the object ot thoroughly 
mastering the making of Oolong black tea, returned 
home last year, and samples of his manufacture 
were received the other day in Kobe from Shidsuoka, 
where he is engaged. Several foreigners pronounce 
the sample excellent, and it seems, therefore, that 
the opinion so generally held that black teas cannot 
be produced in Japan is quite erroneous. 
Ceylon Tea in Persia. — Some weeks ago, it will 
be remembered, the local Manager of the O.B. 0. in 
Colombo received a trial order from Persia, for '20,000 
lb. of tea the result of the despatch of a few samples 
of Ceylon tea to Mr. Duffield, the Agent of the O B.C. 
at Teheran. This order was executed in due cuurse, 
the shipment consisting entirely of flavory Broken 
Pekoe, we believe. A few clays ago Mr. Morrison, 
the Manager of the O.B.O. in Colombo, received a 
telegram from Teheran ordering another 100 chests 
of similar tea, which shows how the first was apprec- 
iated. We hope, therefore, that in process of time a 
large demand may spring up for Ceylon tea iu Persia, 
where tea is drunk very largely, especially iu the north. 
The steamers of the British India Company call re,- 
gularly at Bushire, and no difficulty in the //ay of 
transport exists, except, of cours", when the : \ ar- 
rives at Persia, for roads are uukuown in that p.irt 
of the world, and caravan carriage is naturally very 
expensive. Still Ceylon ought to be able to lay tea 
down in Teheran cheaper than any other country. 
" The Economic Use of Barks " is the little 
of a paper in the Gardeners' Chronicle of June 1st, 
by Mr. P. L. Simmonds, which we are reprinting in 
full in the Tropical Agriculturist. Meantime we 
may give the following figures to indicate the im- 
portance of the trade in Barks. The imports of 
Bark laBt year into the United Kingdom were : 
"Cinchona Bark £661,682 
TaDningBark ... ... £147,107 
Extracts for Tanning and Dye... £394,774 
Cork £718,111 
Cinnamon ... ... ... £ 44,061 
Total .. 
To these we may add by estimate : 
Oak Bark produced at Home 
Larch Bark 
£1,965,835 
£1.200,000 
£ ' 200,000 
Total ... £1,400,000 
Grand Total ... £3,365,835 " 
It is not very satisfactory to find that the import of 
cork exceeded that of cinchona bark last year. 
Coffee and Tea in Uva. — We did not notice 
and resent as it deserved the remark of a corre- 
spondent depreciatory of Uva and its railway in a 
recent issue, and which came with a bad grace 
from a district with the worst bargain in a railway 
the Ceylon Government has as yet got. It will be 
time enough to criticize Uva and its line, when the 
annual traffic return bears as poor a proportion to 
working expenses as the Matale railway has done 
ever since it was opened eight years ago. Meantime 
here is reassuring news from a gentleman who is as 
keen a planting critic as any in the country we 
imagine. Writing on the 3rd instant, he says: — 
" An estate in Badulla, about 500 acres in ex- 
tent, has just given a crop of 8,500 bushels of 
parchment and looks well for next year. Green bug 
is less prevalent than it was last season. Tea doing 
well in Badulla and the higher features of tlaputale. 
In the former district a field on patana soil has just 
given 410 lb. an acre between the 3rd and 4th 
year 1" — We do not quote this, of course, as proof 
positive that coffee as well as tea are to con- 
tinue to flourish for ever in Uva; but with its 
fine soil and climate and the advantages which 
a railway will bring, we feel sure that profitable 
cultivation of one kind or other will laBt there as 
long as in any part of our planting districts. 
Planting Coffee. — We are glad to learn 
that an expe iment in planting a clearing with 
coffee from Coorg seed is being tried by Mr. 
Gordon Beeves on Hoolankande. We hope it may 
be successful ; but are shade trees planted with 
the coffee as in Coorg and Mysore ? 
Tobacco for Fiji. — Mr. Alexander Hinz 
writing in Levuka on 18lh May thinks tobacco 
the very product for Fiji ; but he very properly 
winds up a long letter of two columns in the Fiji 
Times, with: — -"Anyone who thinks to grow rich 
quickly without labour and trouble should certainly 
leave tobacco cultivation alone." 
Valuable Drugs. — The latest Perak Gazette 
contains a letter from Mr. Bidley, " Director of 
Straits Gardens and Forests," dealing with native 
drugs of value. We have marked it for the T. A., but 
meantime may quote a remark of Messrs. Thomas 
Christy & Co. which is recommended as a stan- 
dard in collecting drugs: — "Anything that is a 
deadly poison is sure to be of great value, and if 
you descend from this standpoint you may get 
other things which are also valuable ! " 
Coarse Fish Culture. — The propagation of coarse 
fish by artificially hatching their ova has again 
resulted in success at the Midlan Counties Fish 
Culture Establishment, Malvern Wells, and many 
millions of young perch, tench, carp, and other 
fish have been turned out of the hatcheries 
recently into the rearing ponds, while a considerable 
number have been distributed in public waters. 
The American whitefish, introduced into this country 
by Mr. Burgess through the courtesy of the United 
States Fish Commissioners, are thriving, and up 
to the present none have perished. Grants of 
yearling trout have been lately made to several 
Devonshire and Midland waters, as well as to those 
of Surrey and Sussex. — London Times, June 10. 
[The American white fish ought surely to be tried 
in Ceylon. — Ed.] 
The Ceylon Tobacco Company of London have 
at length, after much searching, found a competent 
manager for their cigar factory in Colombo, and he 
will, I understand, be despatched to the care of Messrs. 
Cumberbatch & Co. by an early steamer. It is found 
to be more difficult to secure a manager for their 
tobacco-planting enterprize, and accordingly this por- 
tiou of their undertaking will be allowed to stand over 
for the present. Iu the meantime, they will com- 
mence cigar-making at the Ambewatte factory with 
the best leaf tobacco they can secure on the spot. It 
will, of course, be a work of time to train bauds to the 
task, but there will be no difficulty in obtaining a 
sufficiency of work-people amongst the women and 
children of Colombo, who will be glad to find easy 
occupation so near to their own homes. This cigar- 
making and cotton-spinning together should prove of 
the utmost service to the native community of your 
capital. — London. Cor., local " Times." 
Planters in Sungei Ujong in 1888.— The Residents' 
Report shows that good progress has been made with 
the railway, which is expected to be open for traffic in 
June 1890, and the trade prospects appear to assure 
that the line, and any prudent extension of it, will 
pay well. Building lots, it seems, rose in value more 
than 300 per cent during the year. Upwards of 8,000 
acres of land have been applied for planting purposes, 
the area under cultivation reaching now 35,871 acres. 
Planters also have set about extending estates on the 
coast, owing to a modification of the opium regulations 
admitting of coolies there getting that drug easily 
in their own way. And here it may be uoted that 
Messrs. Hill and Kathborne raised in 1888, 645 cwt. of 
clean coffee from 05 acres on their Linsuin estate ; and 
on the latter, 61 cwt. of cured cocoa were picked. The 
estate was extended for growing coffee and pepper so 
far as labour difficulties admitted. On their Se-Lian 
estate 45 acres yielded 495 cwt. of clean coffee. — Straits 
Times. 
