November t, 1888.J TM£ TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
33i 
and cheaper communication with ports of shipment 
by more care in expenditure and by eo-opi rat on. 
The fail in price is shown by the following figures, 
giving the price por pound of Indian tea laid down 
in the London market and including the costs of 
sale:— 1878, Is. 5d. ; 1382, Is.; 188-1, ll$d".; 1886, 9Jd; 
per pound ; when sold the profits in the same year 
we.o 1878, l|d,; ls.s2, ] d ; KS.sl, 2;f I, ; 188(1, -J.'.. Thcso 
naturally are the who t sale prices and Dr. White 
of tho Indian Medical .Service, commenting on them 
before the Society of Arts in London, said that they 
showed why China was goini^ down in the touted 
with India. The latter working on a system centuries 
old and on an exhausted soil is not able to reduce 
the cost of production materially, and meets the new 
state of affairs by supplying a lower quality so that 
it ia now completely discredited, while India meets 
the roduced price by reduced cost of production. 
Indian tea of every grade fetches, more in the 
London mark' t than Chinese tea; the lowest priced 
Indian tea is more than the lowest priced Chiuese, 
and the finest Indian tea fetches 2d per pound 
more than the finest Chinese tea. In fact Indian 
teas are constantly used to mix with Chiuese tea io 
order to give the latter "body," and were id uot for 
this mixing considerable quantities of Chinese teas now 
coming on the market would be quite unsaleable. 
Into the subjects of the various qualitits of Iudiau 
teas or tho reasons why they are not yet so common 
on the contini nt of Europe as in Great Britain, it 
is unnecessary to follow JTerr Feistmantel. Enough 
ba-j been said to show the conditions of the great 
tea question which is having such influence ou the 
trade of China and which appears destined to exer- 
cise a still greater and we might say duatructivo 
influence in the in ar future 
THE JUTE CHOP. 
Bengal and Assam are, it is believed, the only two 
Provinces iu India in which J ute is cultivated as a fibre. 
In other parts of the country the plant is found growing 
wild, but it is rarely cultivated, and then only as a 
pot-herb. In Bengal, where the principal aeat of 
cultivation is in the northern and eastern districts, 
with small patches in the central parts of the Province, 
the seed is sown from the middle or end of March to 
the beginning of June, an I the plant is cut down from 
the middle of August to tho middle of October, or in 
•■oiiio districts earlier. In Assam, where jute is growu 
to a more or less extent all over tho I'roviuce, Goal- 
pnia having by far the largest area, tho sowing takes 
pka« in March and April, and the cutting in August 
and September. The following figures, showing the 
percentages of exports in each quarter to tho total 
exports, indicate pretty fairly when the produce of 
each Province comes into the Calcutta market:— 
Q tarter ending 
3oth Sept. :31st Dec. 
33 46 
4 54 
31st March, 30th June 
lieugal 17 I 
As am 88 1 
Tho normal area and outturn are estimated below, 
though the estimate U of necessity a rough one, since 
agricultural sta'istics iu Bengal and Assam are either 
w. inting or incomplete : — 
Area. Acres. Outturn. Cwt. 
Bengal ... ... 1,275,1X10 13,757,000 
Assam ... ... 10,000 170,000 
T. 
l.-.tu.iMM 1:1,927,000 
'No reports appear to have been furnished on the pros- 
pects of this si- ison's jute crop in Assam. As regards 
Bengal the Provincial Director of Land Records and 
Agriculture ^t.it. s in his report up to tin; middle of 
August last that the crop, at first expected to be an 
evi Hi nt one, has in many districts deteriorated from 
drought in June and from deficient rainfall iu July. 
II- adds, however, that: — " Considering the large e.c- 
tension of cultivation and the lavonroblo prospects of 
a good steeping season on accuuut of the hito rain, 
it may be expected that the outturn of the jute harvest 
of 1888 will not be much below the average of past 
seasons." 
Upon the basis of the figures given in the table 
appended to the Director's Report, an attempt may 
be made to fiatne an estimate ol the probable outturn 
of Bengal jute for this year. As, however, these 
figures themselves are candidly stated to have no 
pretensions to statistical acccuracy, tho result must 
be taken for what it is worth. The average outturn 
is reported to be a little more than 15 niuunds (nearly 
11 cwt.) per acre. The figures then will work out 
thus : — 
Normal. 1888. 
Area. Acres. Outturn, Cwt. Area. Acres. Outturn Cwt. 
1,275,000 1 :!,757,000 1,-135,000 10,990,000 
There is an increase of 12 5 per cent in tho average 
as compared with the normal area, but a decrease of 
20 per cent in the estimated yield of 1888. This 
decrease hardly supports the Director's anticipations 
that the total outturn of this year's crop will not be 
much below the average. Tho rise in area under jute 
cultivation is, no doubt, correctly explained by the fact 
that the good prices which the growers have received 
during the last few years have induced them to iu- 
creise the cultivation. But it is not altogether satis- 
factory that more precise information should not be 
forthcoming on a subject which is so closely connect- 
ed with one of the largest and most speculative 
industries in India. 
Assam exports about half its produce, all to Bengal 
and apparently nearly all for shipment. Broaoly 
speaking, Bengal consumes three-sevenths of its pto- 
due'e and exports the remainder. The exports of raw 
jute from Bengal during the five years ending with 
1886-87 to places outside it were as follows : — 
1882-83. 1883.84. 1884-85. 
By coast, cwt- ... 59,500 5(5,600 57,900 
By sea, cwt. ... 10.341,000 7,017,700 8,368,600 
By raii, cwt. ... ... ... 3,900 
Total 
By coast, cwt. 
By sea, cwt. 
By rail, cwt. 
10,40U,500 
7,074,300 
1885-86 
23,200 
7,782J}00 
20,800 
8,130,400 
1886-87 
20.200 
8,306,000 
26,900 
Total ... 7,832,300 8,353,100 
Tho jute exports by sea have naturally risen consider- 
ably during the last thirty years. Iu 1854-55 their value 
was 23 lakhs; iu 1801-05, 321 lakhs; and in 1881-85, 
466 lakhs. In 1887-88 the value increased to 603 lakhs, 
tho quantity exceeding 0!j million cwt. Practically 
speaking, Bengal BMgCQftW' the tr.ule : the shipments 
are from Calcutta Ana Chittagung in the proportion of 
85 to 15, and chielly to the United Kingdom and the 
United Slates, the share taken by each of these coun- 
tries being 73 and 17 per cent, respectively, ou tha 
total exports. About a third of the imports into the 
I nited Kingdom, which is Supplied almost exclusively 
by India, is re-exported to Continental Europe, which 
competes more largely every year with Dundee in jute 
manufactures. A large proportion of tho supplies 
which India sends to the Uuited States is, it is st.ited, 
comprised of jute-cuttings and rejections, which are 
turned to account by tho inventive Americans for the 
purposes of paper-making. — I'ioiieer. 
VEGETABLE PRODUCTS IN AUSTRALASIA. 
The effect of low prices i< felt universally. While 
wo aro grumbling at home about "cutting" piices 
and forgetting that tho sack of flour was never ko 
cheap as it is now, our fellow c juutrymen in the 
antipodes are striving to solve the financial difficulty 
which is resulting ttiiungh tho diminished and still 
diminishing prii-o of wluut. Farming unquestionably 
is nt a low ebb in this country, ami it is not much 
be Ma — indeed, with over. product ion and higher wages 
it is even worse— in tJre 'cr Britain. Can Austral a 
grow profitably anything but wheat and wool? Those 
uro thu (duple article*, those upon which much ol the 
