October i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
263 
Mr. Gepp: That I won't undertake to say. 
Mr. Sinclair seconded tho vote of thanks to Mr. 
Gepp, which was carried with applause. 
PLANTING IN MAURITIUS. 
(From the Mercantile Record, Aug. 2Gth.) 
Tin: Weathbb and the Chop. — Most of the mills 
which' had commenced manipulating, have been 
obliged to stop working, to begin again in the be- 
ginning of September; the canes not having yet 
arrived at lull maturity. There has been received 
into the Town stores up to 20th instant about the 
same quantity of sugar as last year up to the same 
dato ; but it is probable that the next report will 
vhow a less amount as compared with that of last 
on account of the suspension of work to which 
we have just alluded. 
Vanilla. — Tho markot is always in the same 
situation and entirely bare of vanilla o£ good to fine 
quality. A few lots of inferior sorts were sold from 
K12 to El l per kilo. The cropping is pushed on 
with great activity and, should the weather con- 
tinue to be favourable to tho preparation, we may 
expect the new crop to appear on the market in 
the latter part of next month. As wo mentioned 
in our last, the outturn of the present crop will 
bo superior in quantity to that of last year. 
« . 
CHINA AND JAPAN TEA EXPORTS. 
Those of our planting readers who are un- 
acquainted with the exceptional character of the 
London tea trado, will naturally be surprized, that 
the prospects of an important decrease in this sea- 
son's supply of China tea to England is having so 
little effect on the home market. 
The fact is that a prospect which would have 
led to great excitement in the markets of other 
commodoties of general consumption has no effect 
on that for tea, owing to the trade being almost 
exclusively in the hands of the wholesale dealers 
and exporters. 
No speculation in tea can tako place with any 
chance of a profitable result : a speculator can of 
qottrse buy as much as he likes at the public sales 
which are open to every one, but he cannot re-sell 
his purchases in tho same way, because each lot 
he buys is known to tho dealers and is " tabooed " 
by them. 
Ho cannot rc-soll to the retailers, for they, like 
the publicans, are under the thumbs of the capital- 
ists from whom they buy on credit. 
An outside speculator can only re-sell by private 
sale to the wholesale dealers or exporters, and they 
take care that ho does not get much benetit from 
any advance in prices. 
Speculators therefore keep clear of the tea market, 
but if they think well of prospects and wish to 
have a gamble in it, they can "bull" Indian Tea 
Companies' shares to their hearts' content. 
Owing to the " Sauvo qui peut" way in which 
Indian and China merchants rusii thoir imports on the 
market the game is left in the hands of the wholesale 
dealers, and by the end of tho year nearly the 
whole of tho undelivered portion of tho Indian 
and China supply for the following six months will 
bo in their possession ! 
They will then probably begin to draw attention 
to tin- statistical position of China tea, and to 
enablo thorn to work of! their bonded stocks in a 
satisfactory manner will not object to pay higher 
prioos for the dribblets which will bo arriving at 
tho tail ond of the season. 
Tho number of retailers who have capital or 
credit enough to bo independent of tho wholesalo 
dealurd is increasing ao rapidly that it is just 
possible the hands of the wholesale dealers may 
be forced (if there has been no important recovery 
in the shipments) when tho China exports begin 
as in ordinary years to indicate that the season 
is drawing to a close ; and we may see a more 
decided improvement in the market than has been 
tho case since the fact and cause of the decreased 
shipments were known in London. The co-operative 
stores and large retailers have got the thin end 
<>! the wedge into the preserves of the monopolists, 
and wo hope in time the trade will be left more 
to its natural course than it now is. 
The importers in the interests of the producers 
should do all they can to facilitate retail buying at 
auction : but instead of doing so they arc allowing 
without remonstrance tho wholesale dealers to make 
it even more difficult for the retailer to buy at public 
sales, by increasing the size of the lots or sam- 
pling breaks. 
The wholesale dealers, during their thirty years' 
innings, have become wealthy and powerful, they 
will probably make a splendid coup out of their 
autumn purchases, because if the stock of 
China tea at the end of the year is thirty 
million pounds or more below that at the 
end of last year, it will not be a matter of 
so much indifference to the blender, as the pros- 
pect of it apparently is. 
There is of course just the possibility, though 
it is now very improbable that the arrivals at the 
shipping ports, instead of decreasing as usual, will 
be double what they were last year during September, 
October and November, and ultimately there may 
not be any large deficiency in this season's supply 
of China tea. 
A few weeks more will, however, decide the 
question. In the meantime, the receipts at the 
shipping ports continue to fall oil', and the ship- 
ments to the United Kingdom are now 36J 
million pounds less than last year up to tho 8th 
instant, as will be seen by the subjoined re- 
turns. When we wrote on this subject a fortnight 
ago the decrease was 32$ millions of pounds. 
This continued decrease in the shipments was 
known in London fourteen days ago and the market 
is not affected by it, but until the end of the year 
it will suit the book of the trade to pooh-pooh 
and make light ot the possibility of a decrease of 
80 to 10 millions of pounds in the supply of 
Chinese tea having any effect on prices. 
There is an increase in the stock at Foochow of 
about a million pounds compared with the last 
returns, but there is no increase at Hankow or 
Shanghai. 
Exports from Chinn ami Japan to 
Eugland 1887-8 68,766,266 
...188G-7 105,556,994 
„ „ „ ...18S5-6 101,914,457 
„ „ „ United States.. 18S7-S 20,151,355 
„ „ „ „ ...1886-7 35,850,971 
„ „ .. .1885-0 30,850,701 
„ || || Australian 
Colonies ...1887-S 1S,G25.515 
„ „ ...1880-7 16,127.755 
„ „ „ „ ...1885-6 15,044,803 
„ „ ,, Continent 
of Europe.. .1887-8 12,631,452 
„ „ „ „ ...1886-7 7,591,059 
„ 1885-6 S.143,734 
+ 
PLANTING IN NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
(Translated for tho Straits Time*.) 
For the present the (lovornment has no intention 
of giving up tho compulsory coffee cultivation 
in Java. So from this being the case, its con- 
