208 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1887. 
THE WHEAT CEOP OP THE WOULD. 
The Department of Agriculture at Washington has 
gathered from all available sources statistics of the 
wheat crop of the world for 1886. Ohiua and Japan 
are not included, but their wheat crop is insignificant. 
The total crop is placed at 2,031,322,285 bushels, or in 
round numbers rather over two hundred thousand mil- 
lions. The United States heads the list of wheat pro- 
ducing countries: — Bushels, 
United States 457,000,000 
France ... 299,000,000 
India 214,000,000 
Russia 214,000,000 
Austria-Hungary 143,000,000 
Spain 132,000,000 
Italy 130,000,000 
Germany 82,00",000 
Great Britain 65,000,000 
Turkey ... 4] ,000,000 
Canada 37,000 000 
Algiers 33,0Oi»,00U 
Argentine Republic and Ohili 29,000,000 
Roumania 23,000,000 
Australia 22,000,000 
Belgium 19,000,000 
Egypt 16,600,000 
Sweden and Norway 2,500,000 
Switzerland 1,600,000 
India, Russia and Germany, unlike France and the 
United States, do not grow wheat as their staple. 
Great Britain is the largest wheat buying country in 
the world. All the surplus wheat of Australia and 
India, and a goodly share of that of the United States, 
is sold in British markets, and we probably con- 
sume more wheat per head than any other country in 
the world except France, where wheat is the common 
food of the entire people. Although the United States 
leads the way in the gross yield, the amount per acre is 
about 12 bushels, while in Great Britain it was about 27. 
— Planter and farmer. 
THE INDIAN TEA COMPANIES. 
Although there has been some deterioration in the 
quality produced, in common with nearly all tea-growing 
countries this year, the rapid increase in the outturn 
of the crop of Assam and other Indian teas, is con- 
firmed by later accounts, and it is expected that the 
crop for 1887-88, will be unprecedentedly heavy ; but 
what are claiming a deal of attention at the moment 
are the magnificent results of the past year's working 
as disclosed by the publication of the '■ averages " 
obtained by several of the tea companies, whose 
dividends have ranged from 5 per cent up to as high 
as 18 per cent, as the annexed statement clearly shows :- 
Yield Average Gross 
per acre. Price. Profit. Dividend, 
lb. per lb. £ per cent 
Assam Company 304 ll|d 17,300 10 
Bramapootra do. 4a2 lljd 17,300 15 
Darjeeling do. 297 Is 3£d 10,01)0 7| 
Dooars do. 464 9fd 8,000 6 
Doom Dooma do. 746 8|d 7,400 6£ 
Jhanzie Association 306 Is 7jd 13,000 10 
Jokai Company 411 Is 9,500 10 
Jorehaut do. 309 Is 3|d 26,500 18 
Lebong do. 344 Is l^d 7,000 8 
Luckimpore do. 370 Is 2Jd 8,500 0 
Pauitnla do. 635 Is 8,000 10 
Scottish Assam do. 300 Is 4J-d 5,000 5 
From the liberal dividends declared by the larger 
companies, it may be inferred there is a good margin 
for profit in the growth and cultivation of the tea 
plant in British India, which may be classed amongst 
the most flourishing industries of that country. Ac- 
cording to these calculations, importers can well afford 
to lose 2d per lb. on their teas, as they sometimes do, 
when hastily disposing of them in Mincing Lane, and 
this is as often due to the undesirable nature of the 
supply itself as to the unpreventnblo flatness of the 
market when the wholesale dealers are overstocked. 
AH the tea, companies <'o not produce equally fine 
tea, and those who do can easily add in extra 3 to 5 
per cent to their net profits. This may be taken a 
a further proof of the general superiority of India 
teas, and the great preference that is shown for 
them hy consumers who make it a sine qua non that 
the tea they drink must be strong and tiavoury. 
While the Indian tea-planters work up to a high stan- 
dard of excellence, the competition of other growers 
will not injure them, but rather act as a healthy 
stimulus to still higher attainments and more favour- 
able results ; for it must not be forgotten that the 
value of the different tea companies' shares, from one 
cause and another, is not always at a satisfactory level 
for investors, and during the past twelve months or 
so the quotations of a few of the leading shares on 
the London Stock Exchange early in the month have 
been as under : — 
a 
3 
03 
a a 
ic cS o 3 a> o 
<J Q i-s a j m 
July 1886 ... 46| 24J 45J 4| 13| 5| 
January, 1887... 47£ 24| 41| ... 13 3-16 5J 
Julv, 1887 ... 40 24| 47 6g 13£ 6| 
— Grocer, 
Tea Estates and Production in Assam and 
Cachar are thus noticed in the Pioneer of Aug. 22nd: — 
Some Tea Items. — There were 838 tea-gardens in 
Assam at the close of last year. The number had been 
reduced by about sixty, owing to the amalgamation of 
small gardens with the estates to which they were at- 
tached. Most of the gardens are in the four districts of 
Kachar, Sylhet, Sibsagar, and Lakimpur. The total 
area under cultivation has increased, and amounts 
to 203,993 acres. But that is only about a fourth 
of the land held by planters. In the Kachar district 
there is a tendency to extend the planting of tea 
on lowlying lands which formerly grew rice, and 
to abandon hilly lands, on which tea is found to 
be less profitable. The yield of tea last year is 
given by the District Officers as 61,719,678 lb., but 
the Committee of the Indian Tea Association makes 
the outturn about two and-a-third millions less. 
Either figure is considerably above the amount of 
1885, which was a good average year. 
The Production of Camphor in Taiwau. — In a 
report from Taiwau, China, it is stated that there 
was formerly a fair trade done in camphor at that 
place ; but of late years the export has almost en- 
tirely ceased, in consequence of the risky nature of 
the trade. The camphor is so badly prepare^, and 
is adulterated to such an extent, that the loss in 
weight is excessive, and unless the cost price is 
extremely low, there is little temptation to engage 
in the business. The possible supply is practically 
unlimited, but the inferior quality as compared with 
Japan camphor prevents any great demand for it 
in Hong-Kong, the only market, at present for For- 
mosa camphor. In 1885, a foreign firm at Taiwau made 
an attempt to revive the trade. Contracts were en- 
tered iDto at a price that, in view of the then state 
of the Hong-Kong market, promised to show a hand- 
some profit. In May 1886, however, a proclamation 
was issued by the Governor of the island announcing 
that the Government monopoly in camphor, which 
was abolished in 1868, had been revived, in order to 
defray the expenses consequent on the attempts 
made to subdue and civilise the aborigines. The 
camphor already produced and stored in the interior? 
awaiting a favourable opportunity for sending it 
down to the port for shipment, was seized by the 
Chinese authorities, notwithstanding its being covered 
by a transit pass, and since the date of the issu e 
of the proclamation not a single tub of campho-r 
has found its way to the port. In the meantime 
the monopoly has not proved so profitable to th e 
Government as was anticipated. The fixed rate offered 
is much below that which fore'gu merchants 
are prepared to pay, and the result of the Gov- 
ernor's action has, so far, been simply to nip the 
reviving trade in the bud, without improving hie 
revenues iu the slightest degree.— Gardeners' Ghronide* 
