35& 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1887 
ranged from 2fd to 4s per lb. Occasionally there 
are violent fluctuations, but the market is kept 
pretty steady by the large number of buyers. 
CHEAP TEAS AND DEAR WINES. 
Our Indian tea importer is very severe upon the 
prevailing sentiment with respect to tea. " Gentle- 
men," he said, " who pride themselves upon their 
wine cellar, and will boast of the high price which 
they paid for certain vintages, are not ashamed 
to say that they bought their tea at 2s a pound. 
Why should they not pride themselves upon offer- 
ing their guests the finest tea as well as the finest 
champagne ? It is rare that you get tea of a 
high quality with a fine rich flavour. The great 
run is upon a two-shilling tea, what the grocer 
calls his ' two-shilling canister' I No doubt that is 
very excellent value, for it is a tea free from adult- 
eration, and obtained by a judicious blending of 
different varieties ; but it is not a luxurious tea.'' 
The highest price obtained in the wholesale market 
this year has been 4s, which, with the duty of 6d 
per pound, would probably be sold retail for 6s. 
Nearly everything sold over the counter is blended, 
a small quantity of the dearer teas being mixed 
with the cheaper. 
♦ 
PLANTING IN DELI. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
Tobacco cultivation which has been the making of 
Deli, dates from 1864. That article, now threatened 
with formidable competition by the North Borneo 
product has ever since been coming into greater favour 
on account of the leaves brought to market meet- 
ing requirements in size, fineness, and colour. They 
have proved highly suitable for cigar wrappers, and 
have come into demand for that purpose increasingly 
in America. From Deli, tobacco planting has now 
extended to Langkat; Serdang, Assahan, and Siak. 
So exhausting has the cultivation of tobacco proved 
that new ground has to be continually brought under 
tillage for the purpose. Land once under cultiva- 
tion has to lie fallow for years, before it can 
recover. No wonder hence that the area of avail- 
able land is becoming more contracted every year in 
Deli, intending planters seek fresh fields in the neigh- 
bouring States. Manure, natural and artificial, has 
been taken advantage of to some purpose in restor- 
ing the impaired fertility of the soil. So great has 
been the profit on tobacco that a run for growing 
it has set in to the exclusion of other products. The 
planters are fully aware of the risks attending put- 
ting all tlieir eggs in one basket, but tobacco has 
gained such an overpowering ascendancy that they 
seem loth to try other produce articles. As may 
be expected under these circumstances the number of 
tobacco estates shows a steady increse. As was lately 
stated by us they are mostly in the hands of com- 
panies. It is said that 25,000 dollars are the average 
expenses attending the opening of a plantation. The 
scarcity and dearness of Chinese coolies, the planter's 
mainstay, help to swell the preliminary outlay. Yet, 
in spite of these drawbacks, tobacco planting there 
has outstripped the same branch of enterprise in Java. 
In the latter island, tobacco cultivation has evidently 
seen its best days. In Deli, the prospects are so 
briliant that the planters turn to with a will, and look 
forwards to the future with confident hopefulness. 
The European element is strongly represented and 
asserts itself despite Asiatic surroundings, which take 
less effect there than in many other colonies in the 
Far East. In the capital, civilising and refining in- 
fluences have more scope than in the interior, where 
roughness, as may naturally be anticipated, prevails 
more prominently. The large estates show most evi- 
dence of order and methodical routine. Smaller 
estates do not enjoy a favourable reputation. On 
thoso which are managed in a rough and ready fashion, 
the management frequently leaves much to be desired. 
The roads are very bad, sometimes dreadfully so 
from lack of metalling. Labour for repairing them 
U harJ to get owing to the sparseness of the popu- 
fticp. The Deli railway has, in cunsequeuce, proved 
a benefit by supplying an acknowledged deficiency. 
The estate coolies are mostly Chinese who certainly 
work hard, but give no end of trouble owing to most 
of them being the refuse of their race. Immorality, 
opium smoking, and gambling have a firm grip of them, 
and no wonder. Drinking is rampant among them. 
They also readily take to fighting and disturbance. 
Some pity is due them. They enable the planters to 
enrich themselves, but die off rapidly in consequence. 
Few of them ever see China again. Most managers 
look upon them more as beasts of burden than as 
the noblest object in creation. — Oct. 17th. 
♦ 
THE GREATEST TEA COMPANY IN THE 
WORLD. 
The following interesting account of the Assam 
Tea Company appears in 'lite Stock Exchanye under 
the head of successful companies : — 
" The Assam Company is the oldest, as it has been 
one of the most successful, of the tea companies that 
have done so much towards making India a great 
tea-producing country. Established in 1839, by a 
special Act of Parliament, its initial difficulties were 
many, and chief among them was the question of 
labour. The scanty population of the district in which 
the gardens are situated knew very little about tea 
cultivation and manufacture, and several hundred 
labourers were brought at great expense from China, 
but the experiment was not a success. The Com- 
pany had, however, taken over a few of the hands 
employed by the Government on the experimental 
gardens, and these, with the pick of the Chinese, 
worked the estate for a year or two. 
" In course of time, however, the labour question 
became a much less serious one. In tropical coun- 
tries it must always be a source of anxiety to the 
employer, but the tea companies are no longer de- 
pendent upon foreign labour. The gardens of the 
Assam Company are now worked almost entirely by 
natives of India, Assamese and Bengalis, and the 
rate of wage is low. But the Company have to re- 
cruit a large number of new coolies every year to 
replace those who may not care to remain in their 
service on the termination of their three or five years' 
agreement, although a bonus is given to them on re- 
engaging. 
" The extent of the gardens of the Assam Com- 
pany may be gathered from the fact that they have 
8,114 acres under cultivation, and each acre requires 
the services of one labourer. Last year the gardens 
produced close upon 2| million lb. of tea, and no less 
than 10 million lb. had to be picked to get it. For 
every pound of the manufactured article 4 lb. of 
green leaf are required, 75 per cent, going in 
evaporation and manufacture. To obtain first-class 
tea it is necessary that the leaf should be young 
when gathered. The amount of the yield is depen- 
dent largely upon the rainfall. Thus the yield last 
year was 249,769 lb. less than in 1885, and the lall- 
ing-off is mainly- accounted for by deficient rainfall 
during the early part of the year. In a dry season 
the sap does not flow in the plant, and the leaf grows 
very slowly. The tea plant wants plenty of rain, and 
thrives best in a damp, moist atmostphere, with occa- 
sional sunshine. 
"At the present time the tea-pla ter is much in 
the position of the sngai-planter four or five years 
ago. The competition of bounty-paid sugar was then 
beginning to tell seriously upon his profits, but the 
current prices still left a handsome profit to the man 
who worked his estate to the best advantage. The 
enormous profits of earlier years had disappeared 
never to return, but the profit was still two or three 
times as large as that to be got from English land. 
" It is much the same with the tea-planter today. 
The price of tea has been going down ever since 1»76, 
and now it is not more than half as much as it was 
then. But to some extent this heavy fall has been 
counterbalanced by reduction in working expenses. 
Machinery hns to a considerable extent taken the 
place of hand labour. Boiling the leaf, and drying 
it, and sifting it, all of which used to be done by 
hand ten years ago, is now done by machinery, with the 
result that the labour bill has been reduced very con si- 
