August i, i 
888] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
90 
fo now is a friendly one, m:i ib will doubtless 
continue so while both Indian and Ceylon planters 
are engaged in competition with a common enemy. 
It is British grown tea versus China tea, and the 
victory is at present with the former, lor which 
planters have to thank the inventers of tea machi- 
nery as well as their own pluck and industry. 
As to the prospects of Ceylon, there are two 
Opinions with regard to the suitability of the soil 
for continued crops of tea. Something on the 
subject from a scientific man who knows the soil 
and is not specially interested in tea growing 
tvouhl be ust fill. 
Mr. J. Berry White, the chnirman of the Jokai 
Tea Company, speaking at a recent meeting of 
that company, referred to the decrease in the cost 
of production at most of the company's gardens 
and he indicated thai they were now working at 
a minimum cost. He said that they might possibly 
reduce the cost of production by a !,d. per pound, 
and if they did that it would give them another 
3 per cent., provided that the tea produced realised 
the same prices as now. He expressed his belief 
that in live years time it would bo quite as much 
a matter of curiosity to get China tea as it was 
a matter of difficulty five or six years ago to pur- 
chase Indian tea. They did not know all the 
difficulties under which the Chinese raised their 
tea, but they knew that they could not raise is 
under Hd. per lb. What they were looking forward 
to and expecting was that China tea would be 
again displaced this year by another 20,000,000 lb. 
of tea, and that would bo about tantamount to 
the inr eased production of India and Ceylon. The 
reasonc why China could not compete with India 
was that it was a case of hands versus machines. 
In China they used the old handl'ooms, while in 
India they did nearly everything by machinery, 
and, cheap as labour was in the Celestial Emipre, 
the t a-growers could not compete against them 
with their machinery. There was no doubt that 
the Chinese growers and merchants had made 
\ igorous efforts during the last four or five years 
to attempt to meet the Indian competition, and 
that in many cases they actually sold their tea at 
a loss. In the London market the price of Indian 
tea had averaged from 25 to 30 per cent, higher 
that China tea. 
PLANTING IX NETHERLANDS INDIA. 
(Translated for the Straits Times.) 
In .lava, capitalists and planters still fix their 
gaze 011 British Nortli Borneo, as a more promis- 
ing lield for investment than that island. Com- 
panies floated there for the purpose find ready 
support. Planting enterprise meets with such little 
encouragement, from Government in Java, that it 
is no wonder wistful eyes are turned towards North 
Borneo. 
According to the latest published oHloial re- 
ports, the nutmeg plantations in Bund a were in 
a satisfactory condition. This is more than could 
have been expected, considering the heavy storms 
that had raged thero a little while before. 
Tulegrams from Amsterdam announce that nil 
shares in the Mnnula Bay Company started for to- 
bacco cultivation in British North Borneo, have been 
allotted. 
NKTilLRLANDS INDIAN LAND MEASURE. 
Acres. Morgen. 
9 1032 + 1 
40734+ 2T383 + 
■ sq. Kynhuid Roeden- I Morgen 
1>*-'S3 „ |, ,, 1 Bouw, 
The lineal unit of the Netherlands Rocde = to 
18 - 72+ links of Gunter's chain. As tho linoal unit of 
English laud measure, i. e. a link, and the Ryuland 
lioeJe are incommensurable, we may take the 1,0110 
bouws of the uational cinchona plantations in Java to 
be equal to 5,000 acres + repeating decimals. — Cor. [Can 
any correspondent inform us of the accuracy of the 
above, or point out any t rror, and oblige; — Ed.] 
DRUG TRADE REFORT. 
London, June 2fsfc. 
Cinchona. — At Tuesday's public sales a rather smaller 
quantity was offered than has been the case lately, 
the supply consisting only of 1,498 packages Ceylon, 
602 packages Indian, 1,128 South American, and 6 bags 
Jamaica bark. JS T o Java cinchona was offered on this 
occasion. The assortment of Ceylon, and even more 
so that of the Indian barks, was unusually good, but 
theie was very little desire to buy, and sales were 
ouly possible because holders generally showed no dis- 
position to insist upon the values paid at the last auc- 
tions. At a decline ranging from 5 to 10 per cent., 
and a unit value ranging from ljd. to IJd., nearly the 
whol; of theestoru barks was disposed of. 
Tea in Mokocco. — Among the articles which enjoy a 
growing consumption in Morocco is tea, which is nearly 
all bought in England, "Hyson" tea being the most 
esteemed. In 1887 the four principal ports imported 
together £33,553 worth of tea, against £31,510 the year 
before. 
Kola Nuts. — It is stated that a large proportion of 
the kolas now imported from the African West Coast 
at Liverpool, and distributed to the trade from that 
port, are of a spurious character. We were shown a 
few days ago a large sample of dried fruits offered by 
a Liverpool firm under the name of kola nuts, and 
which are said not to be of the genuiue character. 
But at the same time we were shown specimens of the 
fresh leaves of the alleged spurious kola, and these cor- 
respond in all particulars to the drawings of the 
leaves of the admittedly genuine variety, lu outward 
appearance the dried lobes of the two varitiej of fruit 
bear a very close resemblance ; but while the true fruit 
has a yellowish-brown uneven fracture, the " false 
kolas " have a distinctly waxy and smuotli fracture 
varying in colour from purple to buff. Other samples 
of halt-dried fruit offered as kola, which we had an c p- 
portunity of inspecting, show a five-lobe J fruit, whtrea- 
true kola has ouly two lobes. 
WYNA AD NOTES. 
Buuw 
1 
27th June, 1S8S. — Our weather has been lighter during 
the past week, and everybody is busy, planting up new 
clearings, and putting in failures. Coolies (Uauarese) 
dribble in slowly ; they have a pleasant smiliug way of 
saying great numbers are coming in "next week," but 
there is a beautitul vagueness about this period which 
none but a plauter can fully appreciate. Eortunately, 
we have (Jhermasto fall back upon,— and for re d hard 
work they ure certainly preferable. Uau any of your 
correspondents suggest au easy and effectual way of 
pulping Liberian coffee '! 1 have quite a tine crop uoiv 
ripe ou my trees, but I have tried all sorts of ways of 
cleaning it, and found each more troublesome tbau the 
last. The husk is so hard and thick, and so great in 
quantity, compared to the actual out-turn of beans, 
that even the servants shako their heads over it, and 
consider a basketful rather in the light of a white 
elephant ; and yet it seems a shame to waste it. The 
natives like the coffee, saying it is much stronger than 
the ordinary kind, and they will buy it, freely, vltMltd. 
It is ruination to auy pulpur, and apparently thu only 
way is to pound the berries when hall rot'on, and ex- 
tract the beans, by washing. But this is so laborious a 
process that it is hnrdly likely ever to bo a pitying 
one. The trees grow extraordinarily fast, and crop 
very freely, and scorn to bo completely tree from all 
the diseases of colfee. I hnve i.evi r seen a sigu of 
either h af or borer ou auy of my trees, boine of wllioh 
are twenty feet high, with ropes of crop 011 every bmnch. 
— iiMrtu Times, Juue 30tb. 
