THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1889. 
Coffee and Tea in Victoria. — Only through 
the English papers by this mail, do we learn that, 
in consequence of the improved financial position 
of the Colony, the Premier of Victoria was able no 
Tuesday (July 30th) to announce the abolition of 
the coffee duty and the reduction of the duty on 
tea to Id. per lb. 
• Tea in India. — The following is taken from the 
printed report on a successful tea garden in the 
Terai, just issued : " It (the garden) has seen its 
best days, and is not likely to pay much, now that 
plains' teas are so abundant as to glut the mar- 
ket. It has laboured under one disadvantage, it 
has not been coached by a Calcutta Agency 
House. Had it had the benefit of this skilled 
control, who could say what the profit to the 
proprieters might have been ? As it is, I believe, 
they have divided amongst them over 2J lakhs, 
and we have a working capital of nearly B20,OG0." 
M. Mail. 
Tea Planting in Ceylon. — We have received 
the following from a correspondent in London : 
"The editor of the Pictorial World has accepted 
a series of eighteen sketches on tea planting in 
Ceylon for publication in his paper, executed by 
Mr. Charles Eea during a recent visit to the 
island, which will appear at no very distant 
date. They comprise views of the bungalow, fac- 
tory, estate, and show the whole process of 
tea-making from plucking to dispatch to the railway, 
together with a short description of the domestic 
life of the planter, his management of Tamil coolies, 
cultivation of tea, and future prospects of this 
industry." 
Tea in Morocco. — The Consular report on the 
trade of Morocco mentions that the tea trade, which 
continues entirely with England, shows a general 
improvement, which is most marked at Laraiche, 
the value of tea imported at all the ports amounting 
to £39,373, as against £26,555 in 1887. The same 
classes of Hysons and Young Hysons, of from 7d. 
to Is. 5d. per lb., are still in favour. The Vice- 
Consul at Laraiche also reports : — Tea shows the 
satisfaofactory increase of 400 boxes or half-chests, 
but as the value has not risen in proportion, the 
presumption is that the quality is inferior; Cheap 
sugar has enormously stimulated the consumption 
of this beverage, in which the town Moor is a true 
connoisseur, but the country people, who are now 
contracting the habit (no longer prohibited by its 
cost), are satisfied with a very inferior quality. — 
L. & C. Express, Aug. 16th. 
Coffee in Java. — According to the annual report 
of the Samarang Agricultural Company the business 
is limited to the working of a Coffee land in 
Kadoe and one in Solo (Java), transferred to the 
Company by the Samarang Trading Society. The 
undertaking in Kadoe has suffered much from dis- 
ease of the leaves, notwithstanding all the mea- 
sures that have been used to cheok it. The latest 
reports, however, are more favourable. The company 
has also one Indigo undertaking, the results of 
which were tolerably satisfactory. The report refers 
to the company's possession of a seven-eighths' 
share in a sugar manufactory, situated in Solo, 
but the sereh disease has caused considerable 
damage, resulting in a loss of f.31,838. A better 
result is expected in the present year. From the 
profit and loss account it appears that there is a 
loss of f 3,121, which will be carried to new 
account- The States Gazette of the 24th inst. 
notifies the floating of the Agricultural Company 
" Penampean," in this city, which purposes to work 
the Coffee and Cinchona undertaking in Ngrow 
district Kedirie (Java). The capital amounts to 
000,000, in Bhares of 1,000 each.— Amsterdam Cor., 
(L, arid (J. Express, August 23rd. ) 
Flax in New Zealand. — Flax owners are (accord- 
ing to the New Zealand Times of May 16) getting 
very handsome royalties just now. Humour says the 
Oroua Estate receives £2.800 a year royalty on a 
weed (Phorruium-teuax) that they have spent much 
money trying to eradicate. Another big West Coast 
estate is getting over £1000 a year in royalties. The 
favourite form of Flax royalty is a rent of £14 per 
shipper per month for a day of ten hours, whether 
the mill be working or idle. Some landlords charge 
a royalty of Is. 6d. to 10s. per too of green Flax, and 
even higher prices are mentioned. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Cinchona Prospects and What the Regula- 
tion of Shipments Might Do. — With reference 
to the discussion in our columns Btarted by Baron 
von Rosenberg, the following extract from the 
letter of a well-informed London House to their 
Colombo correspondents has been sent to us: — 
" If the Syndicate of growers of bark again talked 
of and brought out in the Observer as an entirely 
new idea were to be established, we have no 
doubt a rise of 100 per cent could be established 
in a short time, but we don't think it will be 
done." This remark would seem to apply to Ceylon 
alone, without reference to India or Java, much 
less to growers in Bolivia — who are brought for- 
ward as a bugbear by the Chemist and Druggist in a 
long article which will be found on page 252. 
And there can be little do ubt that if five or 
six instead of nine or ten million lb. of bark 
were sent from Ceylon in a season, the rate paid 
for the lower quantity would be much enhanced. 
But Ceylon planters would inevitably ask that 
Indian and Java planters kept down their ex- 
ports also. Now what has been suggested to us 
by responsible men here as a feasible means of 
operating would be by the establishment of a 
Store Syndicate in Colombo prepared to regulate 
shipments in equal proportions according to receipts 
and to meet the planters' pecuniary exigencies by 
advancing about 60 per cent of the current value 
of the bark stored. Such is the proposal made to 
us in all good faith. It is for the planters of Uva 
at their next meeting to give their opinion of it, 
they being the chief holders of bark. The very 
announcement of such an arrangement would, it is 
said, better the market. — Meantime we have to do 
with largely increased exports of bark during the 
past few weeks after an encouraging lull; but our 
London friends should note that the shipments are 
mainly of bark stored in Colombo and that local 
stores are now said to be nearly depleted. The 
following figures up to the latest date available in 
this sense are instructive: — 
Oihchona Bark 
Carried by Railway from 1st June to 22nd August. 
1889. 1888. 1887. 
Tons. 
Cwt. 
Tons. 
Cwt. 
Tons. 
Cwt. 
Juno 
2 
... 42 
18 
60 
10 
81 
16 
9 
... 16 
12 
61 
6 
67 
1 
16 
... 18 
15 
48 
4 
74 
8 
23 
... 25 
7 
48 
18 
101 
3 
30 
... 33 
16 
29 
5 
49 
9 
July 
7 
... 42 
14 
26 
2 
56 
14 
14 
... 32 
13 
61 
3 
71 
3 
21 
... 17 
13 
83 
9 
70 
1 
28 
... 29 
5 
71 
1 
71 
18 
Aug. 
4 
... 19 
4 
74 
10 
84 
2 
11 
... 26 
12 
40 
9 
65 
15 
18 
... 22 
7 
99 
19 
61 
9 
327 
16— 
704 
17— 
854 
19= 
734,272 lb. 
1,578,8 
66 lb. 
1,915,088 lb. 
Exports During the same Period: 1st June to 
22nd August. 
1889. 1888. _ 1887. 
1,912,373 lb. ... 2,676,312 lb. ... 2,948,969 lb. 
Exports During the Week ending 29th August. 
319,281 lb. ... 332,199 lb. ... 295,458 lb. 
