October i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
2tg 
Analysis, Ots. per lb. 
42 rs. on 600 lb. per acre -07 
Plucking -10 
Gathering, rolling, and drying "01} 
Sorting and packing - 05 
Transport "02 
Tea- makers' pay "01 
London charges , '10 
Contingencies '03J 
•40 cts per 
lb. of tea. 
Remarks. — The maximum yield of tea is taken at 
COO lbs. per acre ; but the estate from the books of which 
the items are taken gave an average of 730 lb. per acre 
at six years old. Weeding and supervision are set down 
at the highest rates ; 3J cents are allowed for con- 
tingencies — an exorbitant rate ; 75 cents is taken as 
Loudon price of the tea — a much higher rate was ob- 
tained by many estates last year. Yield on (ialbodde, 
from tea plauted in 1878 : From 1st July, 1880, to 
30th June, 1881 (bushes being two to three years old), 
yield 4$ maunds=;i80 lb. per acre. [Authenticated by 
J. Roydon Hughes in Ceylon, September, 1881, and by 
Herbert H. Oorfe, visiting agent to Messrs. Sabonadiere 
and Co., of Colombo.] 
Estimates of yield have been avoided, but reference 
can be made to the published returns from Mariawatte 
Estate, neur Gampola, the property of Mr. David Reid, 
which has yielded over 1,100 lb.of tea per acre !* Auyone 
having an idea of residing in the tropics, and at the 
same time engaging in pleasant, although somewhat 
hard, outdoor work, may hud it worth while to gather 
facts concerning the tea planting enterprise, as one 
likely to give him a steady and hamlsouie return for 
his capital and work. It must always bo borne in mind 
that tea, unlike colfee, is not merely an annual crop, 
dependent upon a favourable blossoming season, but is 
steadily plucked all the year round at intervals of about 
throe weeks, except just after the pruning season. With 
coffee, as with English wall-fruit, one heavy thunder- 
shower may cause the same failure of crop as a May 
frost. Thousands of bushes of blossom can bo knocked 
off in a singlo night before it has sot, and, when a 
bushel of coffee may be roughly estimated at 10 rupees, 
the serious loss and risk can be easily appreciated. 
Many coffee .states iu Ceylon have given one year 
£5,000 profit, and the next £4,000 loss. The expend- 
iture upon a fine coffew estate yielding 15,000 bushels of 
parchment would be about £7,000, allowing for man- 
uring. The next year's yield might be 2,000 bushels, and 
the expenditure would be hardly under £6,000. Hundreds 
of fine estates in Dimbula and Dikoya — and probably a 
dozen other districts — oscillated between handsome 
profits and grievous losses in the above proportion. 
And when, added to this, the fluctuation of price ob- 
tained for colfee in Mincing-lane is taken into con- 
sideration the risk of a planter's financial position 
becomes painfully apparent. Now in Ceylon nous 
avons channi lout cela. Tho yield of tea may one 
year he far better than another, according to the 
rftinfal] or other climatic influences, and also, of course, 
may vary with the amount of cultivation and manure 
expended on the estate, but this is all. Coffee 
cultivation is, in many instances, a lottery, whose 
prize is often at the caprice of the weather 
during a critical week or so. Crop estimates of 
1 16 have frequently varied by four or five thousand 
Is. snd have then turned out utterly mislead- 
ing. The yield of tea leaf, from a given estate, can 
be very fairly estimated, and a corresponding amount 
id' oxponditu.ro allowed. The price of tea will fall is 
■lmosl certain lo, but still a good margin remains 
for the producers, who with a relative or partially 
relative reduction ,,( necessary expenses, may manage to 
Moure a return of twelve to fifteen per cent upon 
capital invested,— Thr Citizen. 
♦ 
Tfa in Kohka.— Owing to drought this year in 
Korea tho tea plants have almost withered, and a 
small yiold of poor quality is the result. Silk- 
• Well manured.— En 
worms are dying daily on account of the lateneBS 
of the mulberry leaf, mainly owing to drought.- - 
Japan Weekly Mail. 
The quantity of tea that arrived at Kobe from 
the opening of the season up to the 10th instant 
was 8,390,485 lb., of which 7,602,4001b. were sold 
to foreign firms up to that date, showing a de- 
crease of 617,6741b., and 285,0201b., respectively a8 
compared with the same date last year.— Japan 
Weekly Mail. 
The Red Sea Mother of Pearl Fishebies. 
The Vienna commercial journal Das Handels Museum 
says that mother-of-pearl fishing is carried on all 
over the Red Sea, from the north down to the Gulf 
of Aden, but the best fishing-grounds are in the 
neighbourhood of Suakin, Massowah, and the Farsan 
Islands. The fishing fleet consists of about 300 
boats, mostly belonging to the Zobeid Bedouins, a 
tribe inhabiting the coast between Jeddah and Yambo. 
About 50 belong to Jeddah, and others to other 
localities, They are open boats, of from eight to 
20 tons burden, with one lateen sail. The crew 
varies from eight to 12 men. There are two dif- 
ferent fishing seasons, one of four and the other 
of eight mouths, and during these the boats re- 
main almost constantly at sea, except for a few 
weeks. The crew, consisting in great part of black 
slaves, receives two-thirds of the catch, deductions 
being made for their food ; the owners of the boat 
keep the other third. Accidents are seldom heard 
of, and the divers are remarkable for their physioal 
vigour and robust health. They range in age be- 
tween 10 and 40, and the work seems to do them 
no harm. The lishing-grounds are in the neigh- 
bourhood of coral reefs, where the boats are an- 
chored ; the divers then go out in small canoes, 
specially imported from the Malabar coast for the 
purpose, and begin their work all round. It is necess- 
ary that the sea should be calm, otherwise the 
shells cannot be seen. For some years past the 
negroes have been in the habit of using old tin 
canisters, with glass in the bottom, to enable them 
to see better. In the course of the past ten years 
the catch has fallen 10 to 20 per cent., but by reason 
of the increased price good and bad shells have 
met with a ready sale. The annual production 
varies from $120,000 to 1170,000. During the last 
season of four months it reached only $25,000, 
against $40,000 to $50,000 in the corresponding 
periods of other years. Jeddah was formerly the 
sole market, but on account of the corruption of 
the Customs officials there the port only receives 
about a quarter of the catch now, the rest going 
to Suakin and Massowah. Pearls to the value of 
$4,000 or $5,000 are found annually ; but this 
estimate is uncertain, as tho larger and more valu- 
able ones are sold secretly. The mother-of-pearl 
shells are sold at public action in Jeddah in lota 
of about fifty pounds. Ten years ago all that came 
on the market at Jeddah was shipped off in Arab 
vessels to Suez, whence, it was sent to Cairo, where 
it was sold. At present the greater part is sent 
to Trieste, the rest going to Havre and London. 
Tho largest and most perfect and beautiful shells 
are purchased by traders from Bethlehem, who take 
them home, and cut and sell them to pilgrims. 
Jeddah shells are loss valued in Europe than those 
of Suakin and Massowah because of their yellow 
tinge. In an ordinary lot of shells, as sold in the 
market, 9 per sent, will bo large, 20 per cent, 
medium-sized, 25 per cent, small medium, 10 per 
cent, small, 29 pel cent, dead or cracked, and 6 
per cent, will consist of impurities and coralloid 
marble. Some years since a German attempted 
pearl-fishing with a Beet manned by Greeks but as 
the experiment was never ronewed, it is to be 
presumed that it was B iailure, — The Timtt. 
