April t, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
669 
EXPERIMENTS IN TEA CULTURE. 
The article we extracted from the Morning Post — 
see page 646— on Tea Culture in the Caucasus, New 
Zealand and Natal is interesting as showing the wide 
range of climate in which the tea plant will grow but 
those connected with the tea enterprise in Ceylon and 
India have far more reason to dread competition 
with each other than the competition with them 
of planters in temperate climates. It is not so 
much a question of suitable climatic conditions as of 
plentiful and cheap labour supply, as to whether in 
any country or locality tea on a large and commercial 
soale will succeed. We have no belief that tea in 
the Oauoasus will be more successful than it has 
been in the United States, where, in warm southern 
localities, the ubiquitous plant grows luxuriantly 
enough. As to New Zealand, we should doubt th e 
suitability of climate, while we have no doubt at 
all that the wages question will be found an in- 
superable obstacle. So in all the Australian 
group, unless, which is improbable, the white 
democracy withdraws its opposition to the 
introduction of Indian coolies into the northern, 
whioh are the tropical, regions of the southern 
lands. Our good old friend Baron Von Mueller 
has shown that even in the latitude of Mel- 
bourne tea will grow but with labour at 4s to 
8s per diem, profitable cultivation is impossible. 
Sugar cultivation in Northern Queensland and 
portions of New South Wales, • was only possible 
by means of "Kanakas" introduced from the 
South Sea Islands. But the abuses of the svstem 
became intolerable, and the white labouring clauses 
have successfully resisted all attempts to legislate 
for the introduction of Indian coolies. The millions 
sunk in sugar estates in the Mackay (Pioneer), 
Herbert River, Burdekin and Maryborough districts 
have been largely lost and successful tea and coffee 
oulture rendered impossible where soi 1 and cl'mate 
are suitable. In Natal, too, the inevitable agitation 
by the white labouring classes against the com- 
petition of coolies has made head ; and if cooly 
immigration into Natal is stopped, extended tea 
cultivation on a large scale will be impossible— Thpre 
are some errors in the interesting article we are 
noticing. The "wild" tea of Assam is not 
more robust than the China shrub : the very con- 
trary is the case. The indigenous tea grows well 
in the low hot valleys of the Brahmaputra, but 
would not grow at the altitudes in whioh China 
tea has been grown near Darjiling. The China tea, 
whioh is still largely grown in Darjiling, is also 
fine flavoured. It is not to the indigenous tea of 
Assam but to a suitable hybrid it is giving plane. 
The leaf of the hybrid is more pungent and is 
yielded in larger quantity than in the case of 
China. 
♦ 
NEW PRODUCTS AND INDUSTBTES: 
Aloe Fidue the Best Paying Industry in 
Mauritius. 
A planter send us some praotical hints as 
follows : — 
" Your article on ' New Industries ' brought to my 
mind what T thought of writing to you about before. 
Last month in one of your issues you had in the back 
page the price of ' Drugs,' and amongst other things I 
noticed cohebs selling at from £35 to £10 per cwt., and 
another was sarsaparilla at 6s lid per lb. I said to 
myself now this must be a good thing, I 'II off at once 
to the Peradeniya Gardens and see and get some and 
learn the mode of cultivation. I saw Mr. Clark who 
took me to see the plants, but you may imagine my 
surprise when I found they had only one of the former 
and two of the latter in flo werpots. Now why should 
Government not introduce these products and give 
them to likely cultivators or Rell them as Dr. Thwaites 
did with the cinchona ? I have seen in an estate in 
Matale West about 50 acres of alo»s which looked 
to have been carefully planted, but are I 
believe now abandoned, belonging to the Ceylon Com- 
pany, Limited. No machinerv to clean fibre properly I 
heard. Now when I was in Colombo in July last, I met 
Mr. A. Hodoul from Port Louis, Mauritius, on his way 
to Madras to engage coolies ; he told me that the aloe 
fibre trade was the best paying one there and they had 
splendid machinery for preparing it, made in Prance." 
The Eastern Produce Estates Company, which has 
succeeded the Ceylon Company, Limited, has such 
close relations with Mauritius, that they could surely 
get one of the machines used there very easily and 
also if necessary, a superintendent for a few 
months to start the industry. Labour must be 
considerably cheaner in Ceylon than in Mauritius. 
We are specially anxious to see a start made 
with, and a proper trial given to, the preparation of 
our Aloe Fibres and to the cultivation as well as 
preparation of other suitable kinds. There is 
every encouragement to a svstematio trial after 
the pattern set — and the machinery used — in Mauri- 
tius and the Bahamas. 
Now that our Cotton Spinning Mills have com- 
menced work with every promise of success, it 
is pointed out how great encouragement there 
is — in the wealth of raw material — to the estab- 
lishment of a Paper-making Mill, for the coarser 
papers. 
The Gem and Gold Mining propectors are still 
quietly at work. No reliable reports of results have 
yet appeared, but, so far as can be judged, every- 
thing promises well for the establishment of 
several Limited Companies in addition to that 
promoted by Messrs Delmege and Dickson. Fine 
gold in washing and gold visible in quartz have 
both been found in Sabaragamnwa — so that 
capitalists have the option through these Cevlon 
Companies of promoting Gems or Gold or Plumbago 
Mining and Tea Cultivation separately or all 
together. 
TEA FOR WORKPEOPLE. 
[I enclose a cutting from the Arbroath Guide de- 
scribing a^novel method of making tea known and 
appreciated.— Planter.] 
Early Morning Tea at Public Works in Dundee. 
An enterprising firm of spinners and manufacturer 
in the West end of the city having been put to consi- 
derable inconvenience during the late cold weather by 
large numbers of their operatives failing to turn out at 
six o'clock in the morning for the day's work, hit upon a 
novel expedient to get every moruiug a full complement 
of hands. The morniDg defaulters were principally 
women, and the firm, knowing the weakness of' the 
sex, arranged for supplying each female who arrived at 
the works in good time with a cup of warm tea before 
starting work. During the few days the experiment 
has been tried it has wrought well, and, while the old 
ladies especially have been delighted beyond measure 
with this attention paid to their creature comforts, the 
firm have been con,.-i\itul»ting themselves upon their 
happy idea. The matter does not, however, end here. 
The fame of the tea has spread to neighbouring works 
and the females there have been loud in their demands 
for a like privilege. A large number of female opera- 
tives in a west end factory struck work because they 
had not got a satisfactory answer to their demands for 
hot ton iu tho morning. 
