438 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1889. 
from behaviour of plants in germination, wholly aside 
from percentages of sprouting. The studies of experts 
in this country and Germany, indicate that when ac- 
curate information is desired as to the value of seeds, 
the seed-test should present at least the following 
data : Name of variety ; where grown ; when grown ; 
how kept ; per cent, by weight of foreign matter ; 
per cent, by weight of apparently good seeds ; na- 
ture of foreign material ; weight of seeds ; manner 
of testing ; number tested ; average and extreme 
temperatures during trial ; first germinations in hours ; 
last germinations in hours ; per cent, by number ger- 
minated ; per cent, unsprouted but sound at end of 
trial ; date of test ; estimate of agricultural value. — L. 
H. Bailey. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF RURAL 
INDUSTRIES. 
The Government of Victoria being embarrassed with 
the magnitude of the surplus, has conceived the idea of 
of appropriating a quarter of a million pounds sterling 
during the next five years to the encouragement of 
certain rural industries. The principle of aiding the 
development of such industries is in the abstract sound ; 
the intention is laudable, the work of tilling the land, 
and raising food of various kinds therefrom, being the 
normal business of man. It is probably not forgotten 
that farmers pay heavily through the Oustoms for near- 
ly every article they have to buy, and it has been sug- 
gested that the scheme of giving bonuses for the varied 
form of industry enumerated is put forward as a partial 
return of the moneys extracted from the farmers' 
pockets. It is proposed that acreage bonuses be offered 
to persons who shall plant and cultivate during the year 
1889, or during the succeeding lour years, Grape-vines, 
fruit trees, and such other trees and shrubs of com- 
mercial value as may be approved by the Governor in 
council, in sums not to exceed £2 per acre, divided as 
follows: — £1 per acre at the end of the first season, viz , 
from November 1 to February 28 ; 10s. per acre at the 
end of the second season ; and 10s. per acre at the end 
of the third season. Bonuses not exceeding £3 per acre 
are also proposed for certain acreages of a variety of 
fruit", commencing with 5 acres each of Apples, Almonds, 
Apricots, Chestnuts, Figs, Filberts, Gooseberries. 
Lnquats, Lemons, Mulberries, Nectarines, Peaches, 
Olives, Quinces, Strawberries, Walnuts, and Carob trees 
2J acres, 2 acres, and 1 acre, being required of numerous 
other sorts ; the payments to be made by instalments in 
much the same manner as in the previous instance, but 
extending over five years. For the making of wine of 
approved character the amount paid is not to exceed 2d. 
per gallon ; no one maker to reneive more than £100, 
while a bonus not to exceed £5000 may be paid to any 
company with a capital of not less than £100,000, of 
which £25,000 shall be fully paid up, and successfully 
established, to purchase, store, blend, and export wine. 
Exportation bonuses are also provided, and amongst the 
objects of these are green, dried, bottled, and canned, 
fruits. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
♦ 
CEYLON AND AWARDS AT THE PARIS 
EXHIBITION. 
It would be unwise to assign too great impor- 
tance to the fact mentioned in our London cor- 
respondent's letter by last mail that our locally 
grown teas have found no mention in the list of 
awards made by the Commissioners of the Paris 
Exhibition. It is true we might have expected 
to find that under the heading of " Articles 
Alimentaires " honorable mention at least would 
have been made of our teas ; but we have searched 
that list in vain to discover any reference to teas 
of any description or growth. If, therefore, any 
soreness may be felt at the absence of any men- 
tion of our own product, some consolation may 
be derived from the fact that we have suffered in 
good Company. 
But any dissatisfaction that may be, in spite of 
such a consideration, entertained, should be dis- 
counted by the further fact that that feeling seems 
to be very widespread among a large number even 
of exhibitors of French nationality. Although we 
have seen it stated that there was a total number 
of— roughly speaking— 44,000 exhibitors only, some 
33,000 awards have been distributed among them. 
Those who have not been fortunate enough to 
secure them have held several meetings to dispute 
the justice of the verdicts of juries and of experts, 
the attendance at such meetings having been 
confined to native exhibitors. It is evident 
therefore that the findings determined upon 
have given rise to much of discontent, and it will 
only be natural if that feeling be shared in by 
ourselves. But the result in our own case may 
not improbably be due to the very limited interest 
felt by the French in the consumption of tea. All 
the evidence adduced goes certainly to show that, 
at present at all events, tea drinking is not a na- 
tional taste in France. Wbe'.her it is ever likely 
to become so, is, to say the least, extremely doubt- 
ful. But it has been mentioned to our London 
correspondent by Mr. Haldane of Shand, Haldane 
& Co.— and his observations have been confirmed 
by those of others— how materially public taste3 
among the French have changed of late years. 
Whereas but a few years ago beer was an almost 
unknown beverage in France, Mr. Haldace remarked 
that scarcely anything else is now consumed at 
the so-called cafes of the Parisian boulevards. 
The versatility with which the French people as 
a nation have ever been credited seems not unlikely 
to mark its successive appreciation and discarding 
of customary beverages. The love of chaDge may 
produce in this respect as great revolutions with 
respect to national alimentary tastes as it has done 
in regard to national political institutions. It will 
not be surprising, therefore, if some day or other we 
may hear that tea has taken the place of the 
beer which seems now to have ousted altogether 
the light wines until recently so dear to, and so 
exclusively drank by, the habitues of the Paris 
pavements. 
But meanwhile the limited patronage granted to 
our tea-room during the course of the Exhibition, 
and the subsequent entire ignoring of the article by 
its jurors, sufficiently prove that as yet there is little 
ground tor any expectation that a fuller appreciation 
of tea is likely to develop. Indeed we read that a 
sort of crusade is being preached against the use of 
tea in France. That that crusade is being sup- 
ported by the most fallacious and ignorant of argu- 
ments, we can realize from the assertion made that 
the use of tea among our own countrymen lies at 
the root of the evil of our large national consump. 
tion of alcoholic liquors. We very much fear that 
the tastes which lead to this latter regrettable fact 
were established among us long antecedent to the 
introduction of the fragrant leaf from China. At 
a date centuries before tea was vended as a curiosity 
in England at prices ranging from ten shillings to 
twenty-five shillings a pound, beer was the established 
national beverage of the English people. We read 
that Queen Elizabeth took her morning draught of 
ale with due regularity, and we do net doubt it was no 
stinted potation that " Good Queen Bess " indulged 
in. Then the commissariat of both the army and 
navy of her days had a serious difficulty to contend 
with which often delayed the setting forth of fleets and 
the march of troops which has little or no parallelism 
in the military catn'ing of the present time. It 
is recorded that the daily allowance of beer to 
both soldiers and sailors to be provided for was 
thirteen pints per diem 1 In the face of such his- 
torical facts, what becomes of the theory that upon 
