3o8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1889 
at being offered tea by one who, he happened to 
know, had little knowledge of it. Hereupon a sam- 
ple of the green tea was brought and very carefuily 
scrutinized by the grocer. He remained silent for 
about a minute or so, during which time his coun- 
tenance assumed a significant expression, and then 
he exolaimed, " Where in the world have you got 
this stuff from, Mr. ?" " Why, what is the 
matter with it ?" " Matter with it!" said the 
grocer ; " you are surely jesting in calling this green 
tea I" and, taking out his pocket knife, he selected 
a few of the larger " leaves" and cut them 
through. The merchant looked on in amazement, 
and was horrified on being told that old currants 
dressed with copperas and Prussian blue was a poor 
substitute for green tea. " Yes," he repeated. 
" they are shrivelled old currants !" 
Finding himself so completely sold, he now con- 
cerned himself only about the fact becoming known 
to the outer world, for he had not only allowed 
himself to be made the victim of a cruel swindle, 
but he had, as he suspected, rendered himself liable 
to be proceeded against by the inland Eevenue 
authorities for offering " tea" without having a 
license. The story, however, leaked out, but he was 
never afterwards heard of dealing in goods he did 
not understand. — American Grocer, Aug. 7th. 
EXCESSIVE PEODUOTION OF FKUIT. 
The Husbandman says : — " There is no danger 
whatever that apples, peaches, pears or any other 
useful fruit will be produced in excess of the 
demand. The truth is, demand keeps pace with 
production. People will use a great deal more 
fruit when it is plentiful, and when they acquire 
the habit of using it they retain it. * There is, 
perhaps, no branch of farming that yields safer or 
more steady returns than orchard fruit." 
« 
Oranges are now arriving from Australia in 
London in capital condition. Some of those I 
have seen are immense in size. Different methods 
are still being resorted to in the packing, some 
being packed in cork dust, and others only wrapped 
in tissue paper. Both methods, from recent ex- 
periments, seem to have met with considerable 
success. The flavour of the oranges is excellent, 
and compares most favourably with the flavour 
of any orange to be purchased in the streets of 
London.— European Mail, Aug. 30th. 
Bar l ey.— The result of the experimental cultiva- 
tion of barley on the Nilgiris has proved disap- 
pointin g. The out-turn per acre varying from 469 
lb. in Todanad to 577 lb. InMerkanad, while the 
average yield per acre in good seasons was fixed 
as high as 1,500 to 2,200 lb. The experiment was 
inaugurated at the request of the Brewery 
Company, who would have been greatly benefited 
had it proved a success, as the Company would 
then have been able to manufacture their own 
malt instead of importing it at a high cost from 
Europe.— M. Mail. 
Fighting the Fluted Scale Insects. — days the 
Rural Calif ornian : — The Australian lady bug, Vedolia 
cardinalis, is keeping up her reputation as a de- 
stroyer of the icerya. We have enough of the vedolia, 
if properly distributed, to soon have Mr. Coltony- 
Cuehion Scale so reduced in numbers that he may 
no longer be considered a pest. What we want next 
is a parasite that will destroy the red and the San 
Jose soale3 : then we will be fixed. The Country 
Horticultural Commission have established a depot 
for the propagation and distribution of the Vedolia, 
on the Niles' place, on Washington street. They 
have five trees under tents all stocked, and will be 
eady to give away colonies by the 10th August. 
* The very argument of Mr. Roberts as toOeylon tea.-liD. 
A Big Tea Factory in Haputale.— We hear that a 
big tea factory is now about to be erected on Laymas 
estate, Hnputale, to serve the Dambetenne, Monara- 
kandeandLaymas estates. The factory willbe the largest 
in the district, serving as it will a very large acreage 
indeed. It will be put up on the site of the old coffee 
store &c. bordering tbe Laymas road, and the tea from 
the upper estates will be sent down by a shoot. An 
order for all the iron work required has been sent 
home, and tbe distriot of Haputale will soon be able to 
boast of one of the largest factories in the island. 
The Mabking of Ceylon Tea Packages. — Much 
has been done in the direction of curtailment and 
improvement since we first wrote on this subject 
in November 1885, and we are glad to see Mr. 
Street in the Overland Ceylon Observer of July 22nd, 
pressing home our suggestions, which were to 
make marking as simple as possible. Mr. Street 
furnishes a specimen of marking in which the 
climax of simplicity is arrived at. Without 
wishing to be hypercritical we should prefer to 
see an invoice number or a " Break " number, 
rather than a chest number. Each chest on ar- 
rival is cut with a Dock number, which is after- 
wards put on the Weight Notes, Warrants, Deli- 
very Orders, &c. and the chest number put on 
in Ceylon is useless as far as the Trade here is 
concerned. Mr. Street may be able to indicate 
some special reason |for putting " Nett 50 lb." on 
the package. It may help in Australia where teas 
are often, if not always, sold by the package in- 
stead of by the lb. Here it is quite useless, and 
indeed as we have often pointed out gives un. 
necessary trouble in Ceylon, the Trade here being 
absolutely indifferent whether they pay for 47, 48, 
49, or 51, 52, or 53 lb. in a " half-chest."—/. A. 
Rucker S, Bencrajt's Weekly Tea Circular, Aug. 29th. 
The Trade of India in Hides, Horn, and Skins. 
— The magnitude of the Indian export trade in 
hides, horn, and skins is shown by some statistics 
on the subject which have lately been published. 
The official returns for 1888 give the exports last 
year at 570,843 cwt. of raw hides and 38,752 cwt. 
of skins, but these figures give a wholly inadequate 
idea of the slaughter which goes on year by year. 
Quite recently at the London Commercial Sale- 
rooms there were offered for sale in two days no 
fewer than 2,094,733 East Indian goat and sheep 
skins, 475,140 hides, a fair proportion of which were 
buffalo, and 325,453 horns, all freshly consigned. 
The sale in question was described as by no means 
a full one for Indian imports. Large as the figures 
are, however, the trade in Indian hides and horns 
was much larger. The exports of raw hides and 
skins in 1888 numbered roughly 10£ million pieces, 
as against 12£ in 1887, and there are signs of a 
further reduction in the current year. In five years 
the trade has absorbed the hides of over 40 million 
oxen, cows, horses, and buffaloes, to say nothing 
of the 21 million sheep and goats whose skins 
have been sent to various markets. With the 
decline in the hides and skin trade there has, 
singularly enough, been a marked increase in the 
export of horns, the 48,435 cwt. of 1887 having 
been increased in 1888 to 68,018 cwt., 1887, however, 
seems to have been a bad year in this branch of 
trade, for five years ago the exports of horns 
amounted to 59,300 cwt., and had fallen very little 
short of that in 1886. Of the two days' sale in 
London it is worthy of note that 200,253 of the 
horns put up were buffalo, 105,000 oeer, and 200 
ox and cow. Th-^re are no official statistics avail- 
able as to description of horns, buffalo, deer, ox, 
and cow being all classed together, but it would 
seem that the number of Indian deer horns avail- 
able for export has been steadily declining for 
some years past, the proportionate decrease over the 
figures of ten years ago being about 55 per oent. 
— London Times. 
