20 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1881. 
RESULTS AT END FIRST TEAR. 
Receipts ... Nil. 
Debit balance ...R20.000. 
It is a good plan to give all buildings to Assamese 
to execute, as they build far better and stronger houses 
than imported coolies can, on first arrival in the 
country. 
The following are the details of the buildings es- 
timated for : — 
Temporary Bungalow for Managers 
Cook-house 
House for servants 
Stables 
Small out-house 
20 coolie huts 
House for Mohri and Assamese... 
House for Native Doctor... 
Hospital 
Rice godown (strong and substantial) 
Stores godown 
Charcoal godown ... 
R 50 
0 
0 
7 
0 
0 
„ 10 
0 
0 
„ 8 
0 
0 
>> 5 
0 
0 
„ 140 
0 
0 
I* 
0 
0 
7 
0 
0 
„ io 
0 
0 
„ 25 
0 
0 
„ 10 
0 
0 
,, 10 
0 
0 
R 296 0 0 
Tbis leaves a balance of R304 for thatch, and other 
contingencies. 
Tea seed. — About 22,000 seeds go to the maund, and 
if the seed is at all good, about 18,000 will be found 
to germinate in the beds. We will assume that the 
garden is to be planted 4 x 4'. The number of stakes 
in an acre thus staked in an acre thus staked out, 
will be 2,722. As three seeds as a rule are planted 
at each stake, 8,166 seeds will be required per acre. 
But to make sure of such a number, at least 9,000 
should be laid in the germinating beds. We would 
thus require for the 50 acres no less than 450,000 
seeds, and calculating that only 18,000 will turn out 
good in the maund, 25 maunds of seed will be required. 
We have allowed R70 as the price of seed per maund. 
For this amount very good hybrid jat can be obtained 
from trustworthy sources. Excellent tea seed can some- 
times be obtained from natives at a very much lower 
figure, but as they cannot be relied on or trusted 
In any way, it is better to obtain tea seed from some 
well known garden direct. We have made no men- 
tion of nurseries, as there would in all probability be 
a sufficient supply of seed over in the germinating beds, 
which, growing up into seedlings, would suffice for 
the few vacancies which might occur. If the 50 acres 
is carefully sown and well looked after, there will be 
no vacancies to speak of. If the Manager, however, 
wishes to transplant out seedlings the next season, in 
lieu of sowing seed at stake, nurseries would of course 
have to be made. This would add to the cost, and 
the price of the extra amount of tea seed purchased 
would have to be added to the estimate. 
Labour Force. — It will be seen that we have es- 
timated for 55 imported coolies and 10 local labourers, 
making thus a total of 65 labourers on an estate of 
only 50 acres. This will perhaps be found fault with, 
but we maintain that this amount of labour is by 
no means in excess of actual requirements. More- 
over, that instead of the estate suffering a loss thereby 
it will eventually prove a positure gain. We all know 
the heavy losses sustained by gardens owing to in- 
sufficieny of labour. The 62 working souls employed 
on actual garden work, it must be remembered, includes 
men, women and children. There would most prob- 
ably be about 37 men, 18 women, and 7 children (boys and 
girls). Taking into calculation the number likely to be 
daily on the sick-list amongst freshly-imported coolies, 
and the number of deaths likely to occur during the year, 
65 souls are by no means an unreasonable number 
to start operations with. Forsucb a number a good 
native doctor should certainly be engaged. — Indian Tea 
Gazette. 
THE PROGRESS OF INDIA. 
What, for instance, can be more significant than 
the extraordinary development of foreign trade which 
India has witnessed during the last fifty years, involv- 
ing as it does a rise from 18£ millions sterling in 
1834 to more than 122 millions in 1880? This ad- 
vance—due, of course, mainly to the introduction 
of railways — is more rapid even than tbat extraor- 
dinary commercial development which has been ex- 
experienced in recent years in the United Kingdom. 
The average foreign trade of the United Kingdom for 
the period 1816 — 20 was 84 millions sterling ; this 
had increased in the period 1871 — 78 to an average 
of 646 millions. Thus, while British trade increased 
between seven and eight-fold in the sixty-four years 
between 1816 and 1880, the Indian trade has increased 
nearly as much in the forty years from 1840 to 1880 ; 
and the figures of the present year, as is well-known, 
already indicate that its commercial progress will 
be even more marked than that of its predecessors. 
Great, however, as this progress has been, it is re- 
ally insignificant when contrasted with the possibilities 
which the country affords. The 250 or 300 millions 
of people who at present inhabit India, are hardly 
yet touched by the great tide of industrial enterprise 
which is setting in towards its shores. The 7,000 
miles of railway, which at present traverse the country, 
have, indeed, infused a new life into the commerce 
of these parts where their influence extends ; but 
vast areas are still untouched, and the great majori- 
ty of the people still live the primitive life of isol- 
ated agriculturists, tilling with pain their native 
glebe, aspiring to nothing beyond the satisfaction of 
their humble daily wants, and unconscious of the in- 
numerable opportunities of wealth which lie mrased 
around them, The average agricultural outturn, for 
instance, 11 bushels per acre, is as nearly as pos- 
sible identical with that to which Mr. Lawes, the 
great agricultural experimentalist of England, has suc- 
ceeded in reducing a portion of his jland by incess- 
antly cropping it with wheat, without any manure, 
for a period of thirty years. It is, in fact, about the 
lowest, which a soil, exhausted by continuous, reck- 
less and unscientific cropping, can be made to yield. 
Supposing a more generous and rational method of 
culture to be introduced and the average yield raised 
— as it unquestionably might be — to the English 
average of 27 bushels, we should have an addition to 
the world's supply of agricultural produce of three 
millions of bushels, available either for fresh popula- 
tion in India, or for the wants of foreign countries. — 
Pioneer. 
GOLD IN INDIA AND AUSTRALIA. 
The Government of India in analysing Mr- Brough 
Smyth's famous report remarked : "If we omit the 
altogether exceptional sample from Wright's Level 
which gave 24J oz. per ton, and the picked specimens 
from the same workings which gave 25J oz. per 
ton, we get 88 samples, yielding an average of 1 oz. 
8 dwts. 22 grs. of gold per ton." That was the 
result of Mr. Brough Smyth's explorations in the 
Wynaad over a period of eighteen months. Let us 
compare these figures with actual mining results in 
Australia. The actual yield from quartz-mines in 
Queensland was about equal to Mr. Brough Smyth's 
average specimens in the Wynaad. The average yield 
in New South Wales for the same year was 1 oz. 5 dwts. 
7 grains per ton. There is no lack of rich "speci- 
mens" in Australia as in the Wynaad, but experi- 
ence has taught the Australian miners not to at- 
tach too much importance to specimens. The aver- 
age yield of a mine over a period of time, is a far 
more certain indication of the value of land in 
the neighbourhood for mining purposes. With the 
