32 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1881 
THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIAN TEA. 
The following memorandum of instructions relatiye 
to the operations for season 1881, which, we under- 
stand, has been issued by a gentleman of experience 
for use on some large gardens in India may be useful 
to some of our readers : — 
1. The hoe to be continually used throughout the 
manufacturing season in scarifying the surface of the 
land. 
2. The spring shoots to be allowed to grow out 
about nine inches before commencing to pluck the 
leaves. 
3. Plucking to be limited to the leading shoot or 
bud and only two leaves (this must be strictly ad- 
hered to), and tbe leaves or flush should not be allowed 
more than eight days to mature. 
4. Withering to be done rather slowly, and avoid 
exposing the leaves to artificial heat. 
5. Rolling to be done in the machine without 
much pressure, as the leaves will be all young and 
succulent. 
6. Under ordinary conditions it will be unnecess- 
ary to allow the leaves to ferment, and they may 
be spread thinly upon the drying trays at once direct 
from the rolling machine. 
7. The charcoal tires must be strong and brisk, 
so as to arrest the action of fermentation in the leaf. 
8. The colour of the leaves after they have been 
infused for testing sbould be similar to that of a new 
bronze penny piece ; this may generally be regulated 
by increasing or decreasing the fermentation of the 
leaves after the rolling operation. It is, however, 
impossible to get the proper bright colour on the in- 
fused leaf, unless the plants themselves are in a 
vigorous condition, and unless the leaves are plucked 
in a succulent state, say on the eighth day. 
9. If the labour force is insufficient to cultivate 
the whole area under plant, and to remove each flush 
after it has been allowed eight days t© mature, then 
special "nirricks" in boeing and plucking must be 
made, and liberal extra payment for the performance 
of extra work must be made. And if this arrange- 
ment should prove to be insufficient, tben the worst 
parts of the plantation had better be abandoned for 
-the time being, so as to enable the labour force to 
work the remainder in a proper manner. 
It is utterly hopeless to expect to realise a profit 
by making nothing but "common teas," which, no 
doubt, are produced by want of cultivation, and by 
taking 12 to 14 days to remove each flush -—Home <L 
Colonial Mail. 
THE GOLD AND SILVER OF THE WORLD. 
A lecture was delivered on Monday night at the 
London Institute by Mr. G. Phillips Bevan, F.G.S., 
F.S.S., the subject being the " Gold and Silver Mines 
of the World." It was replete with interesting facts 
and figures. Speaking of the early discoveries in the 
colony of Victoria, he cited Mr. Brough Smyth for 
the facts that three diggers at Forest Creek ob- 
tained in 19 days 360oz. of gold ; a party of five 
cleared 2£lb. in a single day ; another of four got 
Uoz, from sunrise till 3 p. m. ; while another of 
three obtained £1,000 in 14 days. The same authority 
mentioned that at Ballarat, the head-quarters of the 
deep mining district in that colony, a party of six 
got l,344oz. of gold for ten weeks' work, while in 
lour months another gang earned £24,000. The win- 
nings of 42 Ballarat companies up to the date of Mr. 
Smyth's writing were no less than £4,305,463, one 
of them — the Baud of Hope — having washed 14,975oz. 
in 44 working days. Of colossal nuggets the lect- 
urer mentioned the Welcome Stranger, weighing 
2,280oz., 2liu. long and lOin. thick, a lump of solid 
gold found by the merest chance, yet worth £9,534; 
the Welcome Nugget, which weighed 2,2I7oz., and 
was sold for £10,000; the Blanche Barkley, l,743oz. 
in weight, and sold for £6,905; the Heron, weighing 
l,008oz., which fetched £4,080. The Victoria gold- 
fields now covered an area of 1,241 square miles, which 
in 1879 yielded 715,000oz., valued at £3,000,000. 
Queensland was traversed by a chain of gold rocks 
from north to south, and at least 4,000 square 
miles were being worked with all the experience 
gained from the failures of the sister colony. The 
yield for 1879 was over a million sterling. South 
Australia was more a copper than a gold country, 
but the goldfields of Port Darwin were being in- 
dustriously worked by the Chinese. After mention- 
ing South Australia and New Zealand, the present 
rage for speculation in Indian gold mines was touched 
on, with a due caution to perplexed investors. The 
Russian mines in the Ural range were interesting, 
both as having been probably referred to by Hero- 
dotus and as having enabled Murchison to forecast 
the success of gold mining at the Antipodes. Pass- 
ing over to the American continent, the lecturer 
spoke of the gold fields of North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, the Californian discoveries and the rich silver 
mines of Nevada and New Mexico. He gave an ela- 
borate description of the Great Comstock lode, the 
two mines of which had yielded in 90 years 
363,671,605 dols. He spoke further of the immense 
wealth of the Arizona and Colorado silver mines, 
as well as of the Bolivian mine long known by the name 
Potosi, and of those worked in Peru, Chili, and 
Mexico. The European mines were the last to pass 
in review. It had been computed, Mr. Bevan said, 
that the grand total amount of gold produced during 
the historic ages was £3,517,093,500 and that of sil- 
ver £2,826,250,000, making for both the precious 
metals together no less than £6,343,343,500.— Home 
and Colonial Mail. 
MR. ANDERSON'S NEW BOOK. 
Of coffee in New Caledonia Mr. Anderson thus 
writes : — " Sugar cane, rice, and coffee planta- 
tions are to be met with in various parts of the 
island. While in Fiji the notion is that the high 
land, 1,000 and 2,000 feet above sea level, offers the 
most suitable elevation for coffee planting, it is worth 
while to bear in mind that in New Caledonia, only a 
couple of degrees of latitude distant, the bushes are to be 
noticed on the flat land, and to all appearance thriving." 
Of coconuts in that island, he states that they are very 
abundant, but that from lack of a market for copperah, 
or intelligence, they are left to rot, and are chiefly 
used as food for pigs. He states the island to be rich 
in metals, especially nickel. Of the products of Fiji 
he writes that they are mainly beche de mer, pearl 
and turtle shell. There is also eandal wood, but good 
quality of this is now scarce. Of your staple growth 
in Fiji, Mr. Anderson remarks: — "Coffee has been grown 
on sundry islands and seems from all accounts to have 
thriven at an altitude of 200 feet in a certain locality. 
It is supposed that on the high ground, 1,000 feet 
or 2,000 feet above the sea level, it ought to succeed 
well. After the doleful history of cotton, it would 
be a pleasure to hear of Fiji becoming a good coffee 
producing country. To start on a new speculation in 
a new colony like Fiji needs the pushing determina- 
tion of men who can meet disappointment or success 
with a certain amount of equanimity. Before the 
coffee bushes produce, they are exposed to the vicissi- 
tudes of two or three years weather, and they are liable 
to be considerably damaged by heavy blasts of wind. 
In New Caledonia there are several coffee planta- 
tions on the low-lying land which to all appearances 
look thriving, but looking well and paying well are 
not necessarily inseparable conditions, The following 
is what our author writes relative to coconut plant- 
ing: — " Many ex-planters and others are planting nuts 
with the hope of raising coconut palm estates. The 
trees take four or five years to produce properly. So 
