TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[August 1, 1888. 
closehedge purposes you have only to shorten them to 
about 5ft. from the ground, and they will send out 
in the spring numerous shoots, graceful in appear- 
ance and forming a thick hedge. Tho giant bamboo 
is of the same family, and, if it can be grown suc- 
cessfully in Victoria, would be "much more valuable 
than the Arundo donax. 
In thus writing, I have chiefly in view Mildura and 
other places to be similarly irrigated. Thanking you 
in anticipation for inserting the above, I am, &c, 
Mars Miller. 
Miller-street, North Fitzroy, April 23rd. 
We may say that, in our own experience, the 
blue-gum is not by any means so inimical to 
vegetation in its neighbourhood as other species 
of eucalyptus. What we take to be E. amygdalina 
is very destructive, while we have blue-gums and 
seed-bearing tea bushes nourishing side by side. 
What the writer states about E. globulus bearing 
the pruning knife well reminds us of what the 
late Director Thwaites advised, and which we and 
some others carried out to a limited extent. It 
was to cut off the tops of the blue-gum trees and 
so render permanent the large dense primary 
foliage, which is so striking a contrast to the small 
secondary leaves of this species. The idea was 
to keep the trees valuable as shelter belts, but the 
tree when cut down sends up such a multitude 
of shoots that we can quite believe in its making 
a good hedge. 
The Arundo donax, referred to, is the largest 
of European grasses, popularly known as a reed, 
and growing to a height of 6 to 12 feet. The hol- 
low, woody stems are an article of commerce, and 
are used by musical instrument-makers. They are 
also made into walking-sticks and fishing-rods. 
We believe this is the reed so commonly grown 
in Italy to form trellis supports for vines ? We 
think, too, this must be the reed which the late 
Mr. Corbet introduced, and which some dozen years 
ago we saw flourishing on several estates. This 
and other reeds could be cultivated on the banks 
of streams or swamps, and ought to be valuable 
for thatch for lines, for tats, tea baskets, <fec. 
We can understand the reed Arundo donax making 
a good fence, but the idea of the gigantic bamboo 
being a good substitute for it is incongruous. 
This bamboo is far too valuable as an ornamental 
and useful plant, to be used for hedges. We have 
some grand clumps growing at 4,700 to 5,200 
feet, stems of which have been utilized as rain 
and irrigation spouts. A joint, nicely prepared 
and polished, and on which a lady has painted 
the arum known as " the lily of the Nile," and 
the bright scarlet- orange tuft called " the red-hot 
poker," is much prized and greatly admired. The 
small China bamboo, of which all the hedges in 
the Straits are formed, grows well at the altitude 
of 4,800 feet. But all the bamboos are injurious 
to adjacent cultivation. So are the aloes. 
CHINA TEA. 
In a United States Consular Beport from Amoy 
Mr. Wm. S. Crowell writes: — During the closing 
months of the past tea season the export duty alone 
was fully 30 per cent, of the market price of Amoy 
oolongs. This is a short-sighted policy, which will, 
if persisted in, with other causes bring lasting injury 
and sure but lingering decay upon the tea trade of 
China. 
Similarly Mr. Wingate writes from Foochow : — 
The whole tea trade of Foochow is in a most un- 
satisfactory condition. Merchants see no prospect 
for the revival of the trade unless measures are 
taken to put China upon an equality with Indian 
teas by a reduction io the heavy internal taxation 
and export duty, improved methods of prepa- 
ration and better facilities for internal transportation, 
But no one here expects the Chinese Government to 
give up its exactions, or that the other desirable 
changes will be soon adopted.—/-. <fc C. Express, 
July 20th. 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
(From the H. & C. Mail, July 20th.) 
It is now stale news to Indian and Ceylon planters 
to learn that the tea trade of China is declining rapidly 
and that Indian and Ceylon are rapidly driving China 
out of the tea market. The Chinese have at length 
awakened to the fact that they must do something, but 
the precise nature of the move has yet to be deter- 
mined. The adoption of a better system of cultivation 
and preparation is an obvious remedy, but the Chinese 
are slow to move. It is remarkable that while the 
business with England is decreasing so much there is a 
large and rapidly developing Russian trade, which seems 
not only able to stand the Chinese duty, but the 
Russian import duty of Is 8d per lb. added. While the 
direct steamers from Hankow for London carried 
22,732,221 lb. during 'the season 1887-8 against 
40,528,806 lb. the season before, the direct steamers to 
Odessa carried 11,146,486 lb. against 9,435,360 lb. 
On the Continent gloomy accounts are received as to 
the prospects of the China tea trade, and sanguine 
anticipations are formed as to Indian and Ceylon tea. 
It is supposed that the next season 100,000,000 lb. of 
tea will be exported to London from India, and 
12.000,000 lb. to 15,000,000 lb. from Ceylon.* On the 
other hand, fine Chinese tea will be very scarce this 
year, and it is not at all probable that an average 
quantity of the third and fourth crops will be exported 
since such low prices are ruling at present in London. 
China seems to be gradually losing its hold on the 
European markets. 
Devonport writes :—" Considering the enormously 
increased consumption of Indian teas — due in great 
measure to the free use of those teas in blending, 
and not to the self-driukiog descriptions, — I think 
the time has arrived for all Ceylon, Assam, and 
other plain chested teas to be dated as China teas 
are (1887-88, &c), so that the new season's crop may 
go forth as snch, and the old take its place in the 
rear rank. Much time and labour in sampling would 
be saved by such an arrangement, besides some dis- 
appointment in sometimes getting a 'non-keeping' tea 
which may be traceable to the fact of its being a 
year old when bought, so that although liquoring 
well when purchased, its age tells rapidly upon it. 
Anyone buying up the clearing lots of old China 
must have occasionally noticed this peculiarity, but, 
having bought it with one's eyes open, no notice is 
taken of it. At present, however, we get old Assams 
and Ceylons mixed up with the new, and, being un- 
dated, ' pigs in pokes ' are sometimes bought." 
A controversy not very edifying is going on in the 
British Medical Journal about the effect of tea on 
the teeth. The medical journals must occasionally 
debate what they call a popular question, and if they 
can introduce an attack on tea, coffee, or sugar, it 
serves their purpose for the time being. As the dis- 
putants do not appear to have diagnosed dental 
disease in association with tea drinking, their opinions 
are not very valuable. The person afflicted with de- 
cayed teeth may be a tea drinker, while the dental 
trouble may arise from other causes. One corres- 
pondent has been struck with the apparent connec- 
tion between tea and teeth decay among factory 
operatives, but as Dr. Henry Sewill points out, many 
other things may be found in the regimen of the 
people to explain the dental phenomena. As a rule 
they earn good wages and eat a good deal of badly- 
cooked food, while working in badly ventilated rooms, 
and they often console themselves with "too much 
beer and coarse spirit. The conditions under which 
* Ceylon is under-estimated by 6 or 7 millions.— 
Ed 
