December I, 1 88g.l THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
411 
to the revision of an arbitrator. The value of the 
acoepted type of tea is about fivepence a pound, and 
according as the tea to be delivered varies above or 
below this, within the limit of a halfpenny, or eight 
points, allowance is made. 
This system has been found to work very well, and 
transactions in which totals of from 10,000 to 12,000 
packages are involved are frequently made in one 
day in Mincing lane. With the system in such an 
early stage, a corner is not a very likely experience. 
Another protection against an occurrence of the 
kind is the ease with which China and India 
oould be played off against one another in the 
oase of a corner. Distributing merchants find 
that the demand in this country is all for Indian 
and Ceylon teas, but if the wholesale values of 
these were put up to figures prohibitive of the cheap 
retail prioes which the publio looks for, it is 
certain that the dealers would average the oost by 
mixing cheap China teas with the Indian product. 
The experiment would be somewhat risky in view 
of the pronounoed taste for the Indian flavour, 
but as British consumers insist rather more strongly 
on oheapneas than on flavour, a movement of 
this sort would certainly be made to combat any 
serious attempt to corner tea in this country. 
Taking all these oircunutances into account, we are 
strongly of opinion that the fsar of a tea corner 
may be safely dismissed. — "The Rialto" in Indian 
Planters' Gazette. 
* 
PLANTING IN FIJI. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE " FIJI TIMES." 
Sir, — Returning from a tour round Vanualevu, 
a few lines on some of the leading products of 
Fiji may interest your readers. In these times of 
depression, the planters hero seem to rely too 
much on copra, to the neglect of other profitable 
products such as coffee, caoao and tea. Had the 
price of copra kept up, coconut planters would 
have been rewarded for their many years of patience 
and hard labor ; but there is proof before us at 
every turn that an effort must be made to grow 
several products on the one estate. Why should 
people purchase coffee, sugar, caoao and tea when 
they oan grow them on their own plantations ? 
It is seventeen years sinoe we have worked the 
soil of Fiji in the old cotton days and oommenced 
coffee cultivation at Kandy (Kade) above Sandal- 
wood Bay in Bua. We revisit the old planta- 
tions and find them suffering from want of 
labor. Coffee Arabica and ooffee Liberica are still 
alive, the latter doing very we'l, and caoao well 
worth cultivation in sheltered places, but the most 
reliable product is tea, for on this property, 
" Masusu," under the management of Mr. Barratt, 
fields of tea may be Been equal to any to be 
found in India or Ceylon. There are forty acres 
of Assam hybrid in bearing and giving 400 lb. per 
acre. This tea oould, by cultivation and reason- 
able labour supply, yield 600 lb. per acre, for it 
compares favourable with any seen in Assam and 
better than tea of the samea^e in Ceylon. 
After exploring the mountain ranges between 
Bua and W-vinunu, I feel convinoed that, in this 
district of Wainunu, one hundred and fifty thousand 
a^res are suitable for tea growing. With the 
correct rainfall and temperature — an average of 139 
inohes of rain for eight years— what could be better 
than that? 
Tho tea manufactured has sold well at prices 
ranging from Is 3d to la 6<1 per lb. The 
pluckers have brought in from 40 lb. to 100 lb.* 
of green leaf per day. This would satisfy the most 
*0! Harry OoHani, Harry Uottvn, oh !— Ed. 
exacting Indian planter. The large nurseries, con- 
taining about 400,000 plants of the best descrip- 
tion, would plant about 250 or 300 acres, or open 
up the whole 400 acres of this blook, 150 of which 
are now in cultivation, 70 in tea and balanoe in 
other produots. 
Tea — Now that Messrs. Stephens, Barratt and 
Simpson have pioneered this enterprise, seed and 
plants can be obtained from them of the best 
Assam hybrid varieties without the risk of im- 
porting seed from India or Ceylon. Plants are 
better than seed, planted 5 x 5 or 6 x 6. 
Wide planting is better than close planting 
to give the bushes light and air and full 
play for their roots ; and a stout plant from 
the nursery, with a sound tap root, will bear 
in two years, and give heavy crops in four 
years from 400 lb. to 600 lb. per acre ; and, 
as they grow older under careful cultiva- 
tion, give up to 1000 lb. per aore. This has 
been cL:ne on estates I oan name both in 
Assam aid Ciylon. Tea does not require pruning 
every year if plucked often and regularly ; it is 
when flushes run away for want of labour to pluck 
that the bush falls out of order and runs to flower 
and seed. Good jat plants will not flower and seed 
when very young, and it proves a bad jat (or 
quality of bush) to be rooted out and thrown away, 
as kidney cotton used to be from Sea Island cotton 
of good, silky, strong staple. Tea will be the most 
paying product in Fiji where the rainfall is over 
90 inohes ; a hot steamy c'imate is the plaoe for 
growing tea to pay. I will not ocoupy your space 
with details of one estate, but will write generally 
of the island of Vanualevu. It is matter of regret 
that so many of the old settlers have disappeared 
from districts where European enterprise once 
flourished : but it is not too late to help those 
who remain by giving them overy enoouragement 
by assistance with seeds and plants of tropical 
products, and granting suitable land on easy terms 
of payment. The following hints may be of some 
service. 
Coffee Arabica. — Though coffee is still diseased, 
and has been since 1869 (twenty years), it is still 
cultivated with more or lass success in India, Ceylon, 
Java, Brazil and the West Indies ; and now that 
slavery is abolished, the Brazilian crop of 10,000,000 
bags will diminish year by year until the prices 
will go up higher than ever they were before, viz., 
1203. or £6 per cwt. Coffee should be topped low 
and not too heavily pruned, and manured with 
cattle dung regularly. Coffee planted 6 x 6 in two 
foot holes would bear in 2£ to 3 years and pay 
for cultivation say £6 per acre ; anything over one 
cwt. would be profit, and coffee has given one ton, 
and often givsn 10 owts. Estates in Ceylon giving 
one and two hundred weights per aore are kept up 
and the cinchona trees scattered about waiting for 
a better market. 
Coffee Liberica. — This hardy variety stands the 
repeated attaoks of H. V. coffee leaf disease better 
than coffee Arabica, and being a larger tree should 
be planted about 10 x 10 feet apart; not topped, 
but allowed to grow pyramidal-shaped unless broken 
by wind, then saw them down and handle out the 
centre about a foot or 18 inohes all round. The 
coffee is as good as tho other for drinking and 
some people like one as well as the other ; but 
if there is any objection to the flavour of Liberian 
Ooffee, it oan be mixed, after roasting, with a 
proportionate quantity of coffee Arabica. 
Cacao. — This product thrives as well in Fiji as 
in Jamaica and parts of Central America, and 
should reoeive all the attention such a valuable 
plant deserves. It grows freely in all parts of 
Vanualevu. Messrs. Holmes, Wilkinson and Simp- 
