July t, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
69 
The Glasgow Tea Market. — This market has been 
instituted with the special object of bringing Ind- 
ian and Ceylon teas more prominently before the 
Glasgow public, and for enabling buyers to obtain 
their supplies directly from the importer's stores. 
During 1886 the consumption of Indian tea in Glas- 
gow and the neighbourhood exceeded 10,000,000 pounds 
and there seems to be every prospect of an increased 
demand. Moreover, seeing that Glasgow has cheap 
and regular communication with the North of England 
and Ireland, it may be confidently assumed that there 
are openings in those quarters for considerable further 
development of the trade. For 20 lb. to 40 lb. boxes, 
direct from the gardens, it seems certain that there 
will be a large and regular demand. Through Bills of 
Lading from Calcutta and Colombo to Glasgow can 
now be obtained at about the same rates of freight as 
to London, by steamers of the highest class. Charges 
are as follows : — 
Clyde Dues, . . . . . . 2s per ton weight 
Cartage to Warehouse . . 2s 6d ,, ,, 
Storage per chest of 1 Maund . . £d per week 
Receiving each chest . . . . ijd 
Weighing „ ,, . . Id 
Delivery ,, „ . , . . f d 
h'ite Insurance . . . . Nominal 
Perfumes. — The following table will afford some idea 
of the value of the agricultural productions from 
which perfumes are manufactured : — 
o * © o o 
"? H O! PI II 
<D CO 
s Et 
sfi a 
;? oo 
o o 
>o o 
co <M <n 
« S * s v 
S ° » O 3 
i.S C a £ 
3 S « o « 2* 2 > 
i-s05O k-O o-O j 
The Rosemary, per cwt., will yield 24 ounces of 
otto oil ; ani-seed, ,'55 ounces ; carraway, from 3 to 4 lb., 
12 ounces; fennel seed, 2 lb.; patchouli, 28 ounces. 
The other plants which yield perfumes are migno- 
nette, verbena, heliotrope, peppermint, wall-flowers, 
laurel ; Australian wattle, and myall wood, &c. 
The perfume stills for the finer qualities are best 
with a capacity of about 8 to 10 gallons. — Indian 
Agriculturist. 
A New Machine. — The Financial and Mining 
Record of New York describes a new machine for 
pulverising, or grinding, of the hardest substances 
by the action of air set in motion, resembling that 
of a cyclone. The air is confined in an iron cham- 
ber not larger than an ordinary house furnace. At 
a test given in the paint factory of McDougall, 
11 ■ Co., where the machine has been in oper- 
ation for six months past, nails, iron, slag, and 
flint rock were reduced to an impalpable powder, 
while the operation was equally effective with 
phosphates, mica, asbestos, rice hulls, and other pulpy 
and soft substances. The device is very inexpensive, 
and so far as tho investigation showed, accomplishes 
results so important, as to point to a revolution in 
pulverising and grinding operations in numerous 
departments of trade. [What " a numerous depart- 
ment of trade" may be, we need not stop to en- 
quire, but if the machine in question can cheaply 
effect the grinding of rocks, such as our felspathic 
gneiss, it will confer an immense benefit on agri- 
culture, by rendering the fertile matter in rocks 
easily soluble, and assimilable by the feeding rootlets 
of plants. — Ed.] 
Tea. — At the last meeting of the Indian Section of 
the Society of Arts, under the presidency of Sir Roper 
Lethbridge, M.P., Mr. J. Berry White, late of the 
Bengal Medical Service, read a paper on "Indian 
Tea." The lecturer said: The suitability of the 
soil and climate of some parts of India for the 
culture of the tea-plant was a frequent subject for 
discussion and report as early as the latter part of 
last century, but until 1834 these investigations 
and reports never got beyond a scientific or academic 
character. In that year the honourable court in 
Leadenhall-street losing the monopoly of the China 
tea trade which they had hitherto enjoyed, sanc- 
tioned the appointment of a committee to consider 
and submit plans for the introduction of tea cult- 
ure in India, and for the superintendence of such 
plans if approved. Mr. White then described the 
circumstances which attended the discovery of the 
plant in Assam, which ultimately resulted in the 
importation of the China tea-plant into the pro- 
vince, which he said was, in its way, as disastrous 
to Assam as the potato fungus had been in Ireland, 
or the black bag to Ceylon. The tea-plant of China 
was a shrub with small leaves, in size and ap- 
pearance somewhat resembling the finest of our 
hedge-rows. That of Assam was a tree growing 
from 25ft. to 35ft. high, with leaves six times larger 
than the China variety. Under like conditions the 
yield of leaf from an acre of Assam tea would be 
not less than double that of the China plant. Mr. 
White having referred to the progress in tea cultivation 
in some parts of Bengal, the North-West Provinces, 
the Punjab, and Madras, said that it was, however, 
in Assam alone that it possessed any real commercial 
importance. During the four years following 1858 
cultivation extended rapidly in every district of the 
province excepting Goalpara. Many companies were 
formed, and the inevitable reaction and collapse 
followed rapidly, the climax of the panic being 
reached in 1866, when most of the companies form- 
ed during the mania disappeared. Since this time 
the tea industry in India had made steady and 
generally healthy progress. It had had, of course 
like all other enterprises, its periods of depression 
and moderate inflation, due to the fluctuations in 
the market value of the staple ; but there had been 
no undue excitement upon the one hand or panic 
on the other. This great industry employed over 
500,000 of our Indian fellow-subjects, over twelve 
lakhs of rupees being paid to them in monthly 
wages. About 275,000 acres were under cultivation 
at the close of last year, a considerable portion 
of this area being immature p'ants ; the whole when 
in full bearing, it was estimated, would yield 
120,000,0001b. of tea. About £10,000,000 sterling 
was invested in the enterprise. The market va!ue 
of the current year's crops might be roughly estim- 
ated at £1,500,000. The consumption of tea of 
all sorts in the United Kingdom since 1870 had 
been an advance from 117,000.0001b. in that year to 
187,000,0001b. in 1878, showing an average annual 
increase of four and two-third millions. The com- 
mand of tho tea supply not only of the United King- 
dom but of the world finally rested with whatever 
country could produce it at least cost, and this 
country, taking every factor into consideration, was 
undoubtedly India. (Cheers.) A brief discussion 
having taken place, the proceedings closed iu the 
customary manner. — L, & C. Kxprett. 
