128 
f HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1887 
try the experiment of both systems under equal con- 
ditions and they will soon be convinced. Another 
•very important advantage the firm potting and feed 
ing system has over any other, is that it enables the 
grows r of plants to make use of a much smaller sized 
pot, and it also economizes 6oil and space, besides a 
plant looks very much better in a small pot with the 
foliage covering the rim than when grown ia one of 
a larger size with the foliage all within th erima ud 
with the whole of the pot fully displayed. 
Amongst the fruits now on sale at Covent Garden 
may be named the Jaffa orange, a most delicious fruit 
without seeds and with a thick rind, it is a very large 
orange of an oblong shape and is much prized. It is 
now selling at from Is to 1/6 per dozen. Australian 
apples too are on sale in abundance and of excellent 
quality. These are brought to England, I believe, via 
the Canal by the help of refrigerators, and the trade 
received a great impetus from the ludianand Coloni a 
Exhibition of la9t year. 
It has just been stated that two brothers named 
Ohaffey have taken a holding of 250,000 acres along the 
Murray River for fruit growing purposes. Let us hope 
their efforts may be crowned with greater success than 
usually falls to the lot of such large land " holders." 
It has been estimated that the value of American apples 
sent to England last year amounted to 3,500,000 dollarls 
or about £700,000. Of this Canada contributed 451,000 
dollars, worth. Lychees, a fruit not unknown on th» 
Neilgherries, are always to be had in London in a 
dried state; they are imported direct from China pack- 
ed in small boxes, and are now selling for 2s per lb. 
Loquats too from Madeira of good size and well ripened 
may be had six for 6d, or smaller size 12 for 6d. 
Pineapples and bananas in abundance from the "West 
Indes, English grown strawberries at 2/G and 3s per lb. 
and many other kinds of fruits both home grown and 
from abroad. But one looks in vain for any fruit from 
India. That trade as to be founded yet. When will 
the day arrive when we shall be able to obtain man- 
goes from Mysore, Bombay or Jaffna at the Covent 
Garden markot in as good condition as we can now 
obtain Australian apples? Would it be impossible to 
utilize the refrigerator on board P. and O. steamers for 
the transmission of Indian fruit to English markets ? 
Be it known to all ye dwellers on the Blue Mount- 
ains, that at the present moment we people of England 
cannot buy a head of good lettuce under 6d, or 
a lb. of ripe tomatoes un ler 2/6, — Hoetus. 
♦ 
THE POSITION OF THE TEA MARKET. 
The price of tea all round is at the present time 
lower than it has ever before been. There has prob- 
ably never been so little interest shown in the ar- 
rival of a first ship's cargo of new season's produce, 
as has been this week evinced over the newly-arrived 
" Moyune " with the first cargo of new season's black 
teas;" and there certainly never before has been so 
low a price as 7d per lb. accepted for good, sound, 
whole leaf new season's tea immediately after arrival. 
But 7d to 8d per lb. is all that can be obtained at 
public sale for a large quantity of very good new 
season's tea, while common grades have sold at even 
lower rates, and it is admitted that old first-crop 
teas are so good and so low in price that relatively 
the new teas cannot be described as being particul- 
arly cheap, even at the unprecedentedly low rates they 
are fetching. They can only be said to be relatively 
very low in price, as compared with the opening 
values given for new season's tea in former years. 
The general position of the tea trade is of an ex- 
ceptional character, and statistics alone are in some in- 
stances rather misleading unless taken in conjunction 
with known facta. For instance, taking the deliveries 
of the United Kingdom from the commencement of 
the present year up to the end of May, they will be 
found to be as follows in comparison with previous years 
Five Months' Deliveries. Five Months' Deliveries. 
1877 ... 63,300,000 1893 ... 71,400,000 
1878 ... 75,300,000 1884 ... 71,800,000 
1870 ... 70,500,000 1885 ... 99,700,000 
1880 ... 65,900,000 1888 ... 72,600,000 
1881 ... 67,300,000 1887 ... 76,100,000 
1882 ... 66,500,000 
From the above it would appear as though the con 
sumption of tea was by no meaus in a very pro- 
gressive condition, inasmuch as eight years ago. viz. 
in 1879, the five months' figures were in excess of 
those of the past five mouths, whilst in 1885 the 
figures were 23,000,000 lb. more. Inasmuch, however, 
as this period of five months includes the Budget 
month of April, the differences iu the clearances 
will be found on examination to be almost entirely 
due to the presence or absence of great excitement 
in the market about that time. Both in 1878 and in 
1879 there existed a great Budget scare, as also in 
1885, and in the early spring of each of these years 
apprehensions as to the probability of an increase in 
the duties led to unusually heavy clearances, especi- 
ally in 1885, when they were so enormously in excess 
of actual consumption requirements as to have antici- 
pated them by some months. Nevertheless, although 
this goes far to prove that the mere figures are 
unreliable, it is by no means certain whether the 
consumption of Tea in the kingdom is in a pro- 
gressive state. It can only be said that such may 
be the case at the present time, although the deliveries 
for the twelve calendar months of 1886 were 3,500,0001b. 
less than in 1885. It certainly appears, on looking 
at the deliveries for the last twenty years, that the 
rate of progress year by year has been smaller during 
the last decade than in the previous one. In 1866 the 
clearances were 102,000,000 lb., and in ten years' time, 
viz., for the year 1875, tbey had crept up to 145,00u,000 
lb. But after the passage of a further ten years the 
deliveries for last year, 1886, only stood at 178,000.000 
lb. In other words, the increase in deliveries during the 
first decade referred to was 42 per cent, and only 22 
per cent during the latter one, and this is the more re- 
markable when taken in conjunction with a steady con- 
tinuous drop in prices, besides the additional stimulus to 
demand given in the year 1865 by a reduction of the 
duty from Is to 6d per lb. In 1866 the average bonded 
price of tea bought by Grocers was Is 8d per lb., and it 
is now only lid. This is a very considerable differ- 
ence, and it might have been supposed that the rate of 
increase in consumption in face of such facts would 
have increased rather than have diminished, as has been 
shown to have been the case over the term of years 
dealt with. 
Buyers in China appear to have been acting with some 
firmness in refusing to give any but very moderate 
prices for the new teas, and tbey will, no doubt, be 
taking careful note of the telegraphic advices that have 
been sent them from London this week, pointing out the 
complete absence of any rush after the new tea here. 
The new tea is particularly low in price, but it is 
not especially cheap, and, taking everything into con- 
sideration, facts seem to point towards lower rather 
than higher prices as the season advances, in spite 
of the low rates already established, — Produce Markets' 
Review, July 2nd. 
The Yamashiro Tea-fiking Company_ at Fushimi 
has in course of erection an additional godown 
containing 500 pans.— Japan Weekly Mail. 
Tea in Japan.— The picking of the first tea crop 
has been finished in Shizuoka, and the picking of the 
second crop has been coinrnnced. — Japan Weekly Mail. 
Export of Tea fbom Fiji. — The Fiji Times 
of May 14th reports as follows :— By the " Arawatta" 
which left on Thursday the New Zealand Loan 
and Mercantile Agency shipped to Auckland the 
first large parcel of Fijian tea which has yet been 
exported. It consisted of 5,000 lbs. from the Alpha 
estate, in splendid order and condition. All the 
reports from experts as to the quality of this tea 
have been so favourable that it is reasonably ex- 
pected to find a ready market at fair rates, and in 
the very probable event of this anticipation being 
realized it will represent the rift in the dark cloud 
which has for so long loured over the colony. This 
shipment will be followed by others in quantity 
each month, and success in the New Zealand and 
other markets cannot fail to attract attention to 
the oolony as a tea growing country. 
