THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1887, 
only in every city and large town, but in every 
village in every part of India. 
By restricting the varieties, to be be grown on a 
la rger scale to those localities to which they are 
m ost suited, a race of growers would be trained 
w ho would thoroughly understand the wants of 
that particular variety, and would grow up from 
their childhood thoroughly conversant with the 
best mode of dealiog with it, not only with re- 
gard to cultivating, propagating, and pruning it, but 
also the best mode of packing, and keeping its fruit 
for a long time. 
Then for carrying the oranges, lemons, &c, from 
place to place, quick steamers are wanted, good oheap 
coal iu India for the return journey, and refrigerators. 
Perhaps petroleum may yet be cheap enough to be 
used extensively as fuel. When that time comes, as 
Indian wheat competes favourably in the European 
market, with American wheat, so might, not impossibly, 
Indian oranges, of a dozen different varieties, com- 
pete favorably with Florida, Trinidad, and Brazil 
oranges. 
Excluding Europe, however, from the orange trade, 
there is looming in the distance an opening for an 
extensive trade in the oranges and lemons of India. 
The Russians are hurrying on their railways from the 
North, and the British from the South-East. These 
two railway systems are bound to meet sooner or 
later, because it will probably be the interest of both 
Empires to make them meet. When that time comes, 
the orange and lemon trade of India will receive a 
great impetus. The Russians are great tea drinkers, 
and their favorite mode of drinking tea is with a 
slice of lemon, with sugar, and the hot tea poured 
over them, without the use of milk. This Russian 
mode of drinking tea is extremely nice. Now, sup- 
posing each Russian used only one lemon per day, it 
can easily be seen what a vast number of lemons 
Russia would consume. The Central Asians are also 
great tea drinkers, and they will not be slow in 
adopting the Russian mode of drinking tea, with a 
slice of lemon; so that the future prospects of the 
lemon trade in India are not at all bad. 
But again, leaving the foreign trade entirely out 
of the question as chimerical, there is no reason why 
the internal trade in oranges and lemons, all over 
India, should not be largely developed, and there 
appears no good reason why, with management, the 
supply of oranges, should not be kept up from De- 
cember to July, considering the many fine varieties 
that India possesses. Then there is no reason why 
some sort of sour lemon, lime, or orange, should not 
be procurable all the year round. In Italy the time 
lemons are most used is in summer, for making 
'granita' or iced lemonade. And there can be hardly 
a doubt that India, with its numerous varieties of 
sour citrus, could supply the internal trade all the 
year round. To effect this, besides growing the sour 
citrus largely, in suitable localities, cheap and quick 
railway transit for fruit would be required. A waggon 
or two for fruit might perhaps be attached to mail 
trains, and fruit carried at the cheapest goods rates. 
Thus convenience and advantage to everybody might 
be the result. There is also no good reason why in 
each passenger train fruit-sellers should not have a 
stall in one of the 3rd class compartments, wired in 
to prevent stealing. In my opinion, enough sensible 
use is not made of passenger trains. 
The following will show to what distance fresh 
fruit can be carried, provided it is sound and care- 
fully packed. Iu the Gardeners' Chronicle of 6th 
March 1886, p. 306, under the head "Fruit from the 
Cape,'' this occurs: — " Messrs. Webb & Oo., of Oovent 
Garden, last week received a small consignment of 
Pears, ' Louis Bronne' and ' Beurre superfine,' in splen- 
did condition, after a voyage of 8,000 miles. They 
anticipate iu the future, from the same source, a 
regular supply of various sorts throughout the 
spring."* 
* Since writing the above, we hear that the Colonial 
Exhibition in London is supplied every week with 
fresh Apples of various kinds from Australia ! The 
When in Ceylon, I read in one of the papers that 
a planter had sent to England some Ceylon oranges 
and they arrived thpre in good condition. 
I have already shown how well the ' Konda-narun ' 
of Ceylon stands a long railway journey, being 
kept packed for more than a month. 
It would appear that the tough, thin, Indian paper, 
said to be mude from bamboo, is suited to packing 
oranges and lemons. 
Etawah. E. Bonavia, m.d. 
♦ 
NOTES ON PRODUCE. 
(From the Home and Colonial Mail, Sept. 23rd.) 
Careful preparation and delicate fragrance first 
brought Japanese teas into favour with Americans and 
enabled them to supplant to a large extent those of 
China. Only the fine grades of Japan tea were at first 
exported, and all were shipped in their natural con- 
dition. But, as time went on, growers, in their desire 
for quicker and greater profits, grew more and more 
careless in their pickings, and foreign shippers in 
Japan, in order to hide a steadily decreasing quality 
of the natural tea, were compelled to have recourse to 
artificial methods of colouring and preparation. The 
consequence was that the entire American market was 
flooded with tea that was both cheap and nasty, and, 
though the export from Japan steadily grew in 
quantity up to 1880, there was by no means a pro- 
portionate increase in value. The continued fall of the 
export in 1883 and 1884 at last awakened the Japanese 
to the bad reputation which their teas were ob- 
taining, and, in the latter year, a Central Tea Industry 
Association was established under the auspices of the 
Department of Agriculture and Commerce, the chief 
object of which was to exercise a supervision over the 
tea industry which would prevent adulteration and bad 
manipulation, and secure the sale by the Japanese of 
the best possible pure leaf. This Association has since 
been in active operation, and its efforts are gradually 
bringing about a much-needed improvement in the 
natural leaf. Some tea missionaries from India and 
Ceylon are wanted badly in America and Canada. 
The Americans and Canadians prefer Japan tea 
probably, because they are used to it rather than any 
other reason. The export of tea from Japan during 
the last seven years has been as follows :— In 1880, 
40,436,877 lb.; 1881, 38,483,854 lb.; 1882, 37,734,845 
lb. ; 1883, 37,146,914 lb. ; 1884, 35,766,600 lb. ; 1885. 
41,244,718 lb.; 1886, 47,595,051 lb. These figures show 
that the export for 1886 exceeded that of any previous 
year in the current decade by over 6,000,000 lb., and 
the average export during the period 1880-85 by over 
9,000,000 lb. Practically the whole export of tea from 
Japan for 1886, was sent to the United States and 
Canada. In the United States, the rate of consump- 
tion of tea is calculated to be about If lb. per head 
of the population. Taking the same low rate for 
Canada, the total annual consumption by the two 
countries amounts to nearly 70,000,000 lb., two-thirds 
of which may be said to consist of green teas. It is 
remarkable that up to now the Americans will not 
following item appeared in the Journal of Horticulture 
for 27th May, and requires no comment : — " Another 
large shipment of Fruit feom South Australia and 
New Sobth Wales has reached the market for Colonial 
produce, held in connection with the Colonial and 
Indian Exhibition. It was brought over per the Orient 
Liner " Cuzco " and proved to be in excellent order. 
The South Australian Consignment consists of selec- 
tion of Apples, Pears, Oranges, Grapes, Quinces, 
Almonds, Basins, Currants, &c. A case of eleven 
Pears weighed no less than 3l| lb., five of them 
being 16| lb. Thev were shown in the South Aus- 
tralian Court on tne occasion of the recent visit of 
the Queen to the Exhibition, and were much admired 
by Her Majesty, the Prince of Wales and Princess 
Beatrice, to whom a basket of the fruit was presented. 
The shipment from New South Wales comprises 
twelve cases of various descriptions of apples and 
grapes, from the district of Orange, packed on an 
improved system which has resulted in a complete 
success. The clusters of grapes were perfect." 
