February i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
557 
route to do a roaring trade, and the timber re- 
quired is what, under present circumstances, prac- 
tically of no value at all. The wild cotton tree, 
for instance, makes capital boxes, and is not only 
plentiful but of no value, and o£ Utile use for any- 
thing else.* It' Japan can lay them down in Co- 
lombo at present prices and make it pay, it would 
be strange if Travancore, with its cheap labour, 
a railway to Quilon, and oheap dhony freight from 
there, oould not do so at a much lower figure. 
To encourage this traffic tho Government should 
not charge for soft timber, from which at present 
they derivo no revenue, and to keep up supply 
of the more valuable sorts they might sell their forests 
on the condition that, for every 10 acres felled 
and planted in tea, at least one should be planted 
with teak on a portion of the property specially 
reserved tor the purpose. This is a condition that 
could bo easily enforced, and would be no great 
hardship on the planter. 
Again, tho paper and cotton-spinning mills now 
being started will require large quantities of the 
raw material, which has to be carried to themaud 
carried away again in the shape of manufactured 
goodB. I might go on dilating on the towns and 
villages that would spring up at every station, and 
the number of traders it would take to supply 
such a population with the necessaries of life, but 
this letter has already run to a considerable length 
and I shall not trespass on the patience of your 
readers any further. I hope, however, I have 
said enough to show that there is more hope of 
traffic in paying quantities by the Northern route 
than by the Southern, and I would just point to 
Ceylon, with a similar country and similar climate 
and industries, its railway costing two lakhs a 
mile, and yet paying its 10 per cent, and I have 
next door to me a railway station on what used 
to be nothing but a swamp, but is now a thriv- 
ing and growing village bringing in already some 
K 1 5,000 a year to the lucky proprietors. I should 
like to seo a similar one in the neighbourhood of 
Culdoorty.— Madras Times, Jan. 17th. 
INDIAN TEA EXPORTS. 
Indiau Tea Association, Chamber of Commerce, 
Calcutta, Jan. 12th, 18S9. 
Dkau Sin,— Tho Oeiiural Committee have the 
pleasure to baud you thoir usual Monthly Kotnrn of 
shipments of tea from Calcutta, and also a return of 
oxports of Coylon tea for four years up to the 20th 
December, 1H8M. 
Exports oflnuiau Tea (rum Calcutta: — 
1888 1887 1886 
lb lb lb 
Export* to Grant Britain in 
Dec. ... ... 11,801,012 10,999,8.19 10,773,078 
Export* to Urent Britain 
from lat May to 31 tt 
Dec. ... ... 79.340.4D9 72.937,100 03,805,388 
Export* to Aunt nil in mid New 
Zealand iu Dec. ... 369,366 336,038 9,680 
Export* to Au-lralia and New 
Zealand from 1 nt Muy to 
Sltt Dec. ... ... 3,397.100 1.806,b84 1,218,718 
Export* to America in 
U»o. ... ... 3.1,819 16.038 1 1,340 
Expuru to America from lat 
M«> to BlJt Deo. ... 93.CU 37,998 78,549 
Export* tu other plncea in 
_ Dec. ... 31,314 98,339 161.03.". 
Export* tu .rtlii-r plu>o* 
from lat May to 31* t 
Dt» ... ... 636,t>03 .197.9(3 1163,943 
Total export* from M Muy 
to 31*t Dec. ... 82,406,156 75.30i.9K4 66.676.598 
— Your* faithfully, (1. M. IUUTON, Assistant Socy 
* Surely tho abort ft no wool (kapok), now no largely 
iu demand (or stuffing mattrnet .*. pillow*, Ax., is of 
vnlm .—Ed. 
The Transmission of Cacao Seeds from Of.yi.on 
TO Cachae, is thus noticed in the proceedings of 
A.-H. Society of India: — Cacoa (Tlieobroma Cacao.) Mr. 
\V. Aitchinson of Oachar sent the following rep >rt on 
12 pods of cocoa obtained for him from Oeylou, for an 
experimental plantation he is desirous of making in 
Sylbet : — " The tin with the cocoa pods arrived here on 
the 22nd instant, and with the exception of 3 pods which 
looked fresh as if just plucked from the tree, they were 
all nearly rotten and white with mould. On open the 
pods, the seed was also white with mould, but very 
fresh when broken in two. Iu some pods the ae«d had 
germinated, the roots being about one inch long, but 
had died back leaving about one-eighth inch which 
looked fresh, so also the seel. I think these will 
come away again. In some others the seed was just 
germinating, and iu some there was do sign of break- 
ing away. On the whole I think the seed arrived in 
very good condition. All were planted on the 23rd and 
24th instant. Will let you know when above grouud 
how many seedling thero are." The 12 pods haviug 
left Heneratgoda, Ceylon, on 20th September, " they 
were thus one month and two days on the j >urney." 
Rhea. — A notice of lihea (Ramie) appears in the 
Kew Bulletin No. 23 for November last. Mr. Morris's 
Report deals with the different machines tried in Paris, 
viz., the Delandtsheer, the Barbier, and the American 
fibre Companies, and also the Favier chemical process, 
and the results are thus summed up: — "That 
the results are unsatisfactory and disappointing, and 
fall far short of the estimates of the inventors, there 
can be no manner of doubt. It is probable that a fresh 
series of trials will be inaugurated next year in con- 
nexiou with the Paris Exhibition of 1889 ; and if the 
value of the prizes is increased, there will doubtless 
appear a larger and better representation of machines 
and processes.'" Mr. Morris mentions other machines 
and processes not brought forward in Paris. Amongst 
others the following : — •' In June last year, Mr. C. 
Maries of Durbhaugah, Bengal, forwarded a series of 
specimens of Ramie fibre in different stages of pre- 
paration to Kew, and asked for au opinion upon them. 
It appeared he had iuveuted a machine, worked by 
two men in the field capable of operating upon 
two or three hundred stems per hour. This machine 
Bimply separated the fibre and bark from the wood, 
the bark was theu operated upon by other processes, 
and eventually it was deprived of gttm and mucilage, 
and worked iuto a tolerably fair fibre suitable for mani- 
pulating by textile manufacturers. This fibre was re- 
ported by Messrs. Ide and Christie as 'long, fairly clean 
Ramie fibre, worth about £28 per ton.' The parti- 
culars of Mr. Maries' metnods have not been made 
public ; but we understand that a well-kuown firm 
of merchants in Calcutta has acquired the patent 
connected with them, and the system is now in coarse 
of being practically tested on a large scale." As fre- 
quent application are being received for information 
connected with Rhea, the above extracts from Mr. 
Morris's report are given, and the following irom the 
same report may bo added as expressing briefly the 
present position of this product. An eminent firm 
of brokers recently informed me :— "There is no doubt 
that Ramie is exoiting great interest in many parts of 
tho world, and many people aro experimenting with va- 
rious processes for extracting the fibre cheaply and 
quickly, We cannot say that any results submitted to us 
up to the preseut time are quite satisfactory. Tho 
fibre is either imperfectly fr*-ed from gumrriv matter, or 
the process breaks down in the matter of coal, or owiug 
to the local conditions uuder which it must be carried on. 
'We consider that nn svstem of prepartion which cannot 
produce tho clean, unbleached fibre under £30 per ton 
is likely to sure- d in establishing thi9 article firnilv 
in the estimation of Eoglit-D textile manufacturers. 
This Opini -\nre-Ms very briefly and clearly the 
conclusion at which I have arrivud in connexion with 
th" preparation nf Ramie fibre. It i* quite possible 
that some machine or process will eventually solve the 
prohletn, but at present the exploitation oi Kami.-, in 
spito of years of labour and the expenditure ol lar*.. 
sums of money upon it, cannot b»- ui<i to h»n< m| 
rmnrcod from tho •iporimontal aCo^u." — /'roctfJin^t of 
A.-H Society of /mini. 
