3 2 4 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1888. 
be kept in view. Such lighthcartednefs cannot fail to 
work mischief ere long. Much of this kind of thing was 
pretty rife in Deli in the early years of planting, with 
the reBult that many pioneers burued their fingers badly 
before experience brought wisdom. The promoters of 
these new business concerns set little store by con- 
sulting experienced parties, and engaging old hands 
on the East coast of Sumatra. With the many Deli 
planter is suitable for manager without closer scrutiny 
into qualificatic ns. On the other hand it must be 
noted that Deli old hands are not easy to engage, owing 
to the hard conditions they lay down before agreeing to 
join any of these new ventures. 
+ 
FROM THE FAB SOUTH. 
(By Old Colonist.) 
SCARCITY OF FREIGHT — CEYLON TEA IN AUSTRALIA — MR. 
ELWOOD MAY AND HIS NEW ENTERPRISE — AMERICA 
NOT A TEA-CONSUMING COUNTRY — AUSTRALIAN PREJU- 
DICE AGAINST PACKET TEA, 
Tasmania, Sept. 18. 
"No freight now for two months and no chance 
of any for some time to come, so if orders are not 
executed, kno.vthat we cannot get freight." 
Such has been the burden of my agent's letters 
for the last two mails : what does it mean '? Surely 
an appeal to the ever-courteous P. & 0. agent 
would overcome this difficulty, or if not there 's 
the German line, and now the Orient. It is par- 
ticularly tantalizing at the present moment when 
duty has been lowered to Id, to find no Ceylon 
tea in Melbourne; at a time too when the demand 
for " Ceylon" is really and rapidly increasing. 
Although not laying myself out as a tea merchant, 
I have in a quiet way done my best to introduce 
and recommend Ceylon to the great tea-drinking 
bushmen, and watched for their verdict with keen 
interest — at first so invariably adverse, and yet after 
the second or third trial — how the lips smack with 
unmistakable approval i If the supply could only 
be kept up, there can be no question the Ceylon 
article v,ould very soon supplant the China, but 
for weeks past 1 have daily been asked in vain, 
"Do you jknow where Ceylon tea can be had?" J 
have written to James Henty & Co. and two other 
houses, but the reply is " None in the market," and 
I am now come to accept and circulate Darjeel- 
ing in order to keep alive the taste for Indian teas. 
Absurd as it may seem, merchants talk of indent- 
ing on London, from whence there are no difficul- 
ties about freight. Eelations with China are getting 
strained, and one would have hoped that Ceylon might 
have taken a legitimate advantage of this, but no, 
so engrossed are you in forcing your teas upou the 
unwilling Yankee, that your own sister colonies in 
the south are unheeded. (One would have thought 
that the experience of 100 years ago might have 
taught the Britisher that there was little profit 
by pushing tea in America!) It is all very well 
to talk profoundly of the importance of supplying 
60,000,000 compared with only 4,000,000, but al- 
though I am not in all respects partial to the 
Australian bushman, in the matter of tea 
drinking I '11 back him against any ten Yankees 
that ever spat in a circle. The requirements of 
Australasia are already, indeed, quite sufficient to 
wipe off the whole produce of Ceylon. 
It may be said, however, that the prices hitherto 
realized in Melbourne have not been sufficiently 
encouraging, but it ought to be remembered that 
the market hitherto has been in the hands of the 
Elwood Mays of Melbourne, and these gentlemen 
with "stupendous" connections are not always the 
best fitted to push a special article, their long- 
established interests being apt to clash with the 
new enterprise. To one looking on quietly from 
a distance all the commotion over Elwood May 
seems truly ridiculous; no doubt he is "one of 
the most remarkable men in hie country," go was 
Mr. Scadder, but the idea of giving him 6,000 lb. 
of tea, while Melbourne cannot obtain for love nor 
money a single chest, is rather re-markable. Mr. 
Lavater and others have told me distinctly that 
though greatly preferring Ceylon tea they had the 
greatest difficulty in obtaining it. Of course, there 
is now Mr. Foulkcs and his packets, but there is 
a well-grounded prejudice in the Australian mind 
against packet tea ; nothing he likes better than a 
big chest in the corner of the room from which 
he can take a handful. 
Had the impression made 8 years ago been 
followed up by regular supplies and a tithe of the 
trouble taken to cultivate the Australian trade 
which has been lavished on the non-tea-drinking 
Yankee, the market would have been in a very 
different state today. 
The Jute Trade oe India. — Jute, as a fibre, 
is inferior to rhea or ramie, but then it id easily 
decorticated and cleaned. The result is that while 
in 1854-55 the exports from Bengal of this substance 
were valued at only 23 lakhs of rupees, those of 
1887-8 reached the enormous value of 603 lakhs , 
the quantity being !J£ millions of cwts. But this 
is not all : 3 7ths of the jute grown in Bengal is re- 
tained in Bengal for local consumption. The average 
yield is 11 cwt. per acre, clean fibre of course. 
These and other interesting details will be found in 
an article which we have marked from the "Pioneer" 
for extract into the Tropical Agriculturist. Next to 
cotton, we suppose, jute is the most important fibre 
produced in the world. Rhea fibre approaches 
silk in strength and beauty, while it can tie mixed 
with wool. But in competing with jute there is the 
disadvantage of the difficulty and cost of getting rid 
of the ligneous matter. 
Thade at Hiogo.— Consul Troup thus writes in his 
report to Blr. Trench ou the tiade of Hiogo aud 
Osaka for the year 1887-: — The export of tea last year 
amounted to 18,669,788 lb. as against 18,( >20,060 lb. in 
1S86; the declared value to §2,882,568 (£156.406), as 
against 82,649,072 (£441,512) in 188(5. The average price 
per picul was §19,90, a higher average than has been 
shown since 1884, the quantity of high-classed teas 
which was bought being somewhat larger than in 1886. 
Of the tea exported over 4,9(J0, 000 lb. were carried by 
steamers of the Canadian Pacific line to Vancouver, 
chiefly for transport to Eastern Canada aud United 
States' cities. Over 6,700,000 lb. were carried by local 
steamers to Yokohama, and thence by Pacific steamers 
to San Francisco, chiefly for transport to United States' 
cities. About 1,200,000 lb. were carried via Yokohama, 
and thence by sailing vessels to different ports ou the 
North American Pacific coast, and the nearest esti- 
mate at which I can arrive places the quantity 
carried by British steamers, via Suez Canal to new 
York for United States' Atlantic cities and Canada, 
at more than 5,700,0001b. — Loudon and Cltina Expi'ess. 
The United States and Canada. — The Oil, Paint and 
Drug Reporter, wo. American journal, shews, by means 
of figures, the enormous injury which wuukl be inflicted 
on the United States as well as Canada by the 
' retaliatory measures" proposed by President Cleveland 
for unworthy party purposes, just as the Senate dis- 
allowed the Fishery Treaty on equally unworthy aud we 
may add wicked grounds. The article concludes thus: — 
" It will be seen from the above that a resort to 
such aggressive measures would not prove an injury to 
Canada alone, but would affect the United States in a 
manner that few would relish even for the sake of 
retaliation. Aggressive measures should only be resort- 
ed to alter all other means of maintaining our rights 
have been resorted to and been found to be unavailing. 
Retaliation of the kind proposed, or indeed, of auy 
description, is undignified and unworthy a great en- 
lightened nation such as we claim the United .States 
to be, but in auy event it should be resorted to 9 a ^ 
after all other honorable meaus for settlingp ince tit 
differences have been tried and failed." 
