THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1889. 
"patent roller process." The old-fashioned burr 
stone grinds the graphte, and it is afterwarde 
bolted like Hour and sold according to its grade 
of fineness. — American Exporter. [Ceylon graphit 
is soldi in lumps and dust, but never ground. 
The grinding process is performed at the manufac- 
tories of crucibles, &c— Ed.] 
•♦ 
NOTES FOR CEYLON READERS. 
Ceylon is not enjoying any monopoly in pioneering 
British grown tea at the Paris Exhibition, if we may 
judge from a little brochure put forward by the Indian 
Tea Districts Association, wherein it is set forth that 
" Pure Indian tea of different kinds are sold at mode- 
rate prices in prettily-designed packets of various sizes, 
and small envelopes containing enough for one or two 
persons furnished to travellers. Large quantities are 
sent from the depot which has already been opened, 
No. 204, Rue de Rivoli, and export orders supplied 
according to each standard direct from London. All 
prices are arranged with a view of inducing large shop- 
keepers in Paris and throughout France to take up 
and push the sale of the teas. As an inducement to 
accept the agency, advertisement in the Indian Palace 
and in a small illustrated pamphlet are offered. Con- 
siderable labour has been expended upon the production 
of this little book. It is illustrated in the French style 
of art, and represents the various classes of society in 
France drinking Indian tea, the virtues of which are 
commended in suitable brief letterpress. It is intended 
to be constantly distributed at the Indian Palace, 
whilst the Exhibition continues open and in itself 
should effect a revolution in the French conceptions of 
Indian tea." It appears from the above that a retail 
business has already been commenced in the French 
capital ; this will, ;of course do something towards 
relieving the London market of a certain quantity of 
Indian tea and so help to steady prices all round. 
Ceylon exporters of plumbago to the United States 
will be interested in an announcement recently made 
to the effect that an immense vein of this substance 
has been found in Southern California, about twelve 
miles from Los Angeles and adjoining the town of 
Cresenta Oanyada. Assays of the ore show it to be 
of superior grade and richness. Specimens assay as 
high as 80 per cent plumbago. — Ceylon Advertiser. 

SUGAR CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. 
It is only some twenty years since the sugar cane 
was introduced into Queensland and every effort made 
to foster the industry by offering bounties for the first 
500 tons of sugar made in the colony ; and now what 
do we see, but the Government, urged on by the de- 
mocratic element resulting from free emigration from 
Europe, distinctly refusing to continue the importation 
of Kanakas, and if this course is persisted in, the sugar 
industry in Queensland must be abandoned. Those who 
are acquainted with the subject know very well that 
in climates where the cane flourishes best, white labour 
for certain field operations is an impossibility, be the 
wages ever so high, and it is a lamentable fact that 
men of capital and energy should be obliged after years 
of hard work, to shut up there mills and allow the 
cane fields to go out of cultivation because freedom in 
labour is not allowed. For further particulars on this 
important question I would refer your readers to my 
article in the Field of May 4th, 1889.— John Hughes. 
[It may have been right, in view of abuses, to stop 
the importation of Kanakas (South Sea Islanders), 
but immigration from India ought to have been 
allowed. The prospect now is that five millions of 
property will be sacrificed. — Ed.] 
JAPANESE TEA. 
The American Grocer reprints from some other work 
the following little note on tea culture in Japan: — 
The tea-plant is a shrub or bush rather than a tree. 
I don't know how high it might grow if left un- 
pruned, but it is usually trimmed down to within 4 
or 5 feet of the ground. I have seen the tea-plant 
in various places. The Japanese set the plants, three 
or four in a hill, the hills being 6 feet apart. It takes 
three or four years for a seedling to grow large enough 
to yield a crop of leaves suitable for gathering. The 
plants live many years, although the leaves are picked 
off two and three times a year. The first picking is 
in April or March, the second in June and the last 
in J uly. The leaves are thick and glossy. They are 
gathered in baskets, and placed over a steaming ap- 
paratus, and then dried over a gentle fire, in paper* 
pans. The tea is now sorted, and the different qua- 
lities are packed in jars or chests. The wholesale 
tea buyers who export the article to Europe and 
America, have warehouses at the shipping ports, 
where they subject the tea which comes from the 
fields to a further roasting process, in large iron ket- 
ties. They then repack it in such chests as you have 
seen at the large groceries. 
This valuable paragraph is accompanied by an 
illustration labelled '• Drying and Packing Tea," 
which is — will it be. credited? — nothing more or less 
than a representation of the process of feeding silk- 
worms ! And now we suppose a large section of the 
population of the United States will imagine that in 
Japan tea is first chopped up small with a kitchen 
knife, and then packed in shallow little boxes upon 
layers of caterpillars \— Japan Weekly Mail, July 27th. 
DURBAN COUNTY TEA COMPANY. 
The first annual meeting of the above took place 
yesterday afternoon, in the Exchange. Smith Street, 
Mr. 0. Dacomb presiding: 
The report of the directors stated that the lease of 
the company's land for 21 years, with right of purchase, 
had been duly arranged. At their request, Mr. J. L. 
Hulett, m.l.c., visited the gardens, and testified to their 
suitability for tea planting, recommending that the 
whole be taken up by Dec, 1890- By 1892 the crop 
should produce £2,000, with annual increase. This ad- 
vice had been accepted. The Manager had now 60 
acres planted, and 40 ready ; so it is hoped that 100 
acres will be under cultivation by December. The hot 
summer destroyed eome of the October plants. The 
young plants need rain badly now. Seven hundred loads 
of manure are awaiting use. Sixteen coolies and ten 
kafirs are now employed. Labour is difficult to obtain, 
the manager recommends importation from India. 
Receipts and expenditure showed a balance of £90. 
— Natal Mercury. 
[The scarcity of rain and labouris ominous. — Ed. T.A. 
« 
VALUABLE MANURES. 
Mr. Fischer, secretary for agriculture, referring in 
the Agricultural Journal to "A Treatise on Manures," 
a book lately published by Dr. Griffiths, principal 
and lecturer on chemistry at tbe School of Science, 
Lincoln, says Dr. Griffiths has, according to his state- 
ments, in a series of experiments obtained 56 bushels 
of dry beans from land manured with half a hundred 
weight of ferrous sulphate (copperas) per acre, whilst 
other parts of the same land without copperas pro- 
duced only 35 bushels. The copperas should be super- 
added to the other manurial agents, and not used as 
a substitute, as it acts chiefly by, rendering insoluble 
plant food contained in the soil soluble. 
According to Berthelot, Gautier, and Dronin the 
iron oxide formed from the copperas accelerates also 
the process of fixing atmospheric nitrogen in a soil. 
In the Journal of the Chemical Society experiments 
have been published which tend to show, that under 
certain circumstances, not only the quantity but also 
the quality of a crop is improved by manuring with 
copperas, which also appears to act as an antidote 
against various microscopic fungi (Peronospora infes- 
tans, wheat mildew, &c.) As, however, iron (ferrous 
compounds) in somewhat large quantities poisons the 
plants, only an extended series of experiments carried 
on for a long period of time will solve this question 
satisfactorily. — Natal Mercury. 
* Copper?— Ed. T.A. 
