488 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. Januari i, 1890. 
world — to say that it is now the rnbst unpopular is 
to use a mild figure of speech. I heard of one officer 
who had paid £1,500 to a substitute who came here 
instead of him. The garrison has be -n cut down from 
three full regiments to one battnlio' — 1st Battalion 
Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire) Regiment. 
There is little or no exchange of hospitality between 
the officers of the garrison and the French Creoles — 
the attitude, indeed, of the Creoles just now is 
something like »hat of the Venetians towards the 
close of the Austrian occupation. These few facts tell 
you more about Mauritius than columns of descriptive 
writing could do. - (By a Roving Correspondent) Times 
ef India. 
OUTLOOK FOB TEA, COFFEE, &o. 
The worms are beginning to turn at last. A corres- 
pondent of the Grocer complains that the directors 
of many of the Indian tea companies show, to use 
his own words, " either wilful or foolish apathy in 
not placing their companies more fully before the 
public," and by this lna of procedure, " oausing the 
shares to be as unsaleable as a house or a horse, 
or an ass, that won't go." This correspondent adds : 
— " And, further than this, very few of the companies 
have made any progress during the last ten years. 
They go on paying a dividend, or not, as the course 
of the London market (over which they have no 
earthly control) will admit, but hardly in any instance 
do they show an increase in acreage under cultiva- 
tion; and as most of them have enormous uncleared 
ground, some of which must be most suitable for 
planting, if they cannot work it themselves, why do 
they not sell it, or lease it, or try the allotment 
system ? Anything is better than the stagnation into 
which many of them have fallen," 
The writer of the letter referred to has evidently 
been uufortunate in his selection of an investment, and 
he should try a company where matters are rather 
more lively. But there is more than a grain of truth 
iu what he says. The way in which some of the 
Indian tea companies are managed in London speaks 
volumes for the patience and ignorance of the share- 
holders. Year after year these concerns go on in the 
good old fleepy way of twenty-five years ago, when tea 
was young and everybody connected with it green. 
That these concerns pay dividends is due more to 
luck than judgment, and it is strong proof of the 
resources of the gardens and the ability of the manage- 
ment in India that oompanies of the kind pay at all, 
hampered as they are by cut-of-date notions and 
played out ideas. Fortunately there are not many of 
these companies. The tea industry numbers many 
able and enterprising men, old and young, and the 
boards of some concerns are models of judicious ma- 
nagement, although others are quite the reverse. Tea 
has become a great and important industry, although 
some people fail to recognise this and act as though 
they were engaged in the direction of soup kitchen. 
The days of experimental tea growing and fooling around 
are past, and a general awakening of sleepers is wanted. 
The wisdom of the proposed fortnightly meeting 
of members of the Tea District Association is so 
obvious that we wonder no step of the kind has been 
taken before. The tea industry requires something 
in the nature of a permanent committee sitting in 
London with power to enquire into and amend all that 
tend to retard progress. Difficulties as they crop up 
require to be met promptly, and a committee possess- 
ing the confidence of the representatives of the indus- 
try iu London would be able to do some actual good. We 
should like to have some expressions of opinion from 
our readers on the subject. Something of the nature 
of a "' Tea Growers' Union " would serve the purpose 
and it might work as an auxiliary to the Industry 
Districts Association, or as a distinct organisation in 
harmony with it. There are numerous ways in which 
such a committee could be of use. Pressure might be 
brought to bear upon people and customs held by the 
majority to be hindrances to the weal of tea generally. 
Tbia proposed oommittee of the I. T. D. A. will, we 
hope, be the forerunner of eome such permanent com- 
mittee. Tea property and the shares of tea companies 
would certainly improve in value were such a com- 
mittee in existence. At present competition is the 
ruling spirit. Union is wanted, and something more 
than the furthering of merely personal interests. 
"We are glad to learn," says the Produce Markets 
Review," " that steps are now being taken by the 
Wholesale Tea Dealers's Associatien to lessen the time 
allowed for the delivery of weight-notes. The present 
arrangement is foun 1 to work most unsatisfactorily, as 
it is quite the exception to obtain weight-notes until 
the seven clear working days from date of purchase 
have expired. It is now proposed, as regards China 
tea, that weight notes for not less than a third of 
each entire parcel should be furnished to the buyer 
within four days from date of purchase, and the 
balance in a further three days. With Indian and 
Ceyion teas it is proposed that one half of each p»rcel 
shall be delivered to the buyer within three days of the 
sale, and the remainder in a further four days. 
Missing packages, however, to the extent of 5 per cent, 
in the oase of Indian and Oeylon, and 10 per cent, in 
China teas, are to be exempted from these conditions, 
and are to be accepted by the buyer at the original 
price and prompt if tendered within fourteen days from 
date of contract. This, although undoubtedly a step 
in the right direction, does not go so far as we could 
wish, our contention being that no tea ought under 
any circumstances to be offered for sale until lhe 
packages are weighed and ready for delivery." 
COFFEE. 
The outlook for the coffee planting interest of 
Brazil does not look bright. According to the Rit 
News of Oct. 28th recently received by the mail, com- 
plaints of a great scarcity of labour were being received 
from all the coffee districts. Now, the country is full 
of able-bodied men and women who have neither pro- 
property nor employment, and 200,000 immigrants 
have been received since the abolition of slavery ; yet 
the three provinces in which coffee, the main source of 
Brazilian wealth is cultivated, are Bhort of labourers to 
carry on an essential work, and short coffee crops are 
predicted. 
We learn that the committee appointed by the Dutch 
Government to report on the cultivation of coffee in 
Dutch India has come to the conclusion that in Java 
andMenado the purchase price of coffee should be 
raised to 20fl. per pikol, with the maintenance of 
obligatory sale. It has also decided in favour of the 
principle of suppressing the compulsory growing of 
coffee, which is to come into operation five years after 
the issue of a regulation on the subject. During the 
five years various measures to prepare the introduction 
of the new system are to be taken. Many waste regions 
in Java are to be planted with trees, and other Govern- 
ment enterprises with paid labour are to be carried on 
to serve as models and encouragement to private 
enterprise. Oa the western coast of Sumatra the 
purchase price of coffee is to be raised to 25f). per pikol, 
and obligatory sale is to be maintained, but free choice 
is to be left with regard to the selection of the ground 
and the mode of culture, while a poll-tax is to be estab- 
lished as an equivalent for the increase in the price of 
coffee. One member of the committee was in favour 
of allowing the cultivation and disposal of coffee by the 
growers to be perfectly free, and also of cultivating the 
Sta te plantations with free labour. — H. and 0. Mail, 
Nov. 29th. 

Substitutes foe Gum Ababic— In connection with 
the recent disturbed state of the Soudan, and the 
consequent scarcity and high price of gum arabic, it 
is stated in a recent report, that the effects of this 
are now being felt in Persia, where gum is now being 
extensively collected from the wild Almond and other 
shrubs and trees, and measures are being taken to 
prevent the whole?ale destruction of such woods. 
Consequent upon this, fire-wood and charcoal are ex- 
pected to become scarcer and dearer in Persia, and 
supplies of the latter article have recently been 
received at Bushire from Eurrachee. — Gardeners' 
Ohroniole. 
