June i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
63 
judice against it. Many persons condemn a large 
leaf tea as being of little strength. Such an opinion 
is erroneous. .Some of these teas have been proved 
by^ Mr. Dunn to be very rich in extract, soluble salts, 
and theine. Of course these remarks do not apply to 
an excessively large leaf. — Melbourne Argus. 
TIN TEA BOXES. 
The following reference to these new boxes is 
from the pen of Colonel Money, the well-known 
authority on tea : — The boxes measure 15$ x lOJ-i 
x 10^. They are handsomely illustrated with 
Indian Tea Plantation subjects.- Each piece runs into 
a groove in the adjoining one, so that one minute will 
put a box together and a touch of solder hero and 
there completes it : they are then perfectly air-tight. 
The boxes are very sightly. Price is now 2s. 5d. pet- 
box. Boxes sent to Calcutta up to this have been 
charged 2s. 7d. The price is dependent on the fluctu- 
ating price of tin, which is somewhat lower riow. 
Of course they are sent out in pieces. Cases holding 
pieces for 100 boxes weigh 4 cwt. The firm tell me 
that Messrs. Schtene, Kilburn- and Co.. and Messrs. 
Begg, Dunlop and Co., in Calcutta have consignments of 
the boxes, so any of your readers can see them. In 
my opinion there are several advantages to be derived 
from their use. They will help to .opeu up new 
markets. The ungainly, unwieldy packages we have 
used hiiherto, are certainly detrimental— at least where 
Indian teas are not known. By the use of these tin 
boxes the sale of our teas, would, I am sure, be ex- 
tended at home, and they would also give great facilities 
for successfully introducing Indian Tea into Australia 
Canada, the United States, the Cape, &c. It seems 
some Indian Tea has already been sent home in these 
tins, and I am told it met with a ready sale, quite 
to 8d. per lb. over what it would have brought in 
chests. This is, of course, too good to lasf, but less 
than one penny a lb. increase would pay for their use. 
The tares of these boxes is, and must be exact, viz., 
3 lb. 15i oz , so ouly a few would be opened at the 
Custom House, and the great loss by the deterioration 
of tea being exposed (few know how great it is) would 
be avoided. There is no doubt tea will keep better 
in transit in these boxes than in our old packages. 
How are they to be packed ? Chests holding four 
tin boxes were recommended. I think crates of strong 
Light battens would answer perfectly, and 6 or perhaps 
S boxes might then be placed in each. The rule of 
the Custom House is to discard fractions of a pound 
both in the gro-s and the tare. But in the gross the 
number below is written, in the tare the number above. 
In the case of our ordinary Indian packages, if we 
could regulate our tares exactly, so as to make the 
gross weight only one ounce above Cue whole number, 
and the tare one ounce below the whole number, the 
loss would necessarily be much decreased. This, how- 
ever, is impossible, for, as a rule, the tares are one or 
two pounds h ss when they arrive in England than 
when they left the garden, owing to the wood drying 
in transit : and thus it is quite a chance what the real 
tares come out here. But, with the tin boxes in question 
the tares, that is their weight, being fixed and equal, 
and not liable to change, we can so arrange the weights 
thai the loss will be very trifling, thus : — 
lb. oz. 
The box weigh- 3 154 
We put in tea 20 2 
Gross weight 24 l.\ 
In the Customs the gross is written 24 lb. 
And the tare is written ... 4 , 
The Tea paid Uu will be ... 20 lb. 
* Top, is " the tea garden." front, "weighing lent.' 
BftCKi •'packing.'' Ends, "elephants with howdah." 
or, if desired, the Plantation mark. 
17 
that is a loss of only 2 ounces, or not much above half 
per cent., instead of 3 percent., as shown in the olid 
packages. Roughly, the cost of using these tin boxes 
would be. all told, from \\ to \\ per lb and with 
our lead-lined boxes it averages perhaps one penny. 
The difference of a half penny, or even three farthings 
per pound would not be much for the advantages 
detailed. 
LIME AS A MANURE. 
The very abundant and highly important substance 
popularly called lime, but dignified, by chemists with 
the name of protoxide of calcium, has leg been used 
by agricultural nations as a manure It has been in 
use for nearly 2,000 years, for, according to Pliny, 
the Gauls successfully raised heavy crops of corn with 
it ; while the Romans found an application of lime 
very beneficial to their vines and olives. It was, 
however, about the middle of last century before lim- 
ing was introduced into this country. 
The reason why lime acts so powerfully on vegeta- 
tion is that combined with decayed animal and veget- 
able matter, it forms into a compound soluble, which, 
melting by tbe action of rain, supplies the plants 
with the chief elements of vegetable life — oxygen, 
hydrogen, and carbon ; while it at the same time 
attracts carbonic acid from the atmosphere and forces 
the plant to absorb those gases more rapid I \ than 
usual. 
Lime is found to be more efficacious upon -1. Land 
that has been habitually lightly manured than upon 
land that has been habitually heavily manured. 2. 
Land that in its composition contains no alkali than 
upon land which does contain alkali. 3. Land con- 
taining lime in its composition which has been habitu- 
ally ploughed deeply than upon land in a similar 
state habitually ploughed lightly. 4. Newly broken 
up old grass land than upon land which has been pre- 
viously continually cropped. 
Lime ought not to be applied at all to lands which, 
according to their nature, already contain any of 
it in their composition ; neither ought it to be. 
applied to soil, no matter how rich that soil may be 
in other manures as long as the remains of any pre- 
vious application continue to exist therein. It is well 
known that lime from its nature, always seeks down 
into the ground ; and it is also well known that some 
soils retain its influence longer than others. Accord- 
ing to oue authority, twenty years is supposed to 
be the limit of its benetieial action over a great part 
of the south of Scotland ; w hile another, a fanner in 
oue of the Border counties, after laying down and 
liming a field of grass, found its influence extended 
to nearly thirty years. 
Lime greatly accelerates both the dissipation of 
manure and the chemical decomposition of the soil ; 
and in the very degree in which jt increases fertility 
by this species of action, the lan I on which it operates 
with proportionally large dose- of manure, and per- 
haps with occasional doses of such mineral constituents 
j as combine chemically and nntriently with the lime. 
Grass lands which have been allow ed to run to seed, 
ai d which have become overrun with rushes and coarse 
vegetation, may be greatly improved by a dose of quiek- 
i lime; for, according to Dr. Hunter. 'Quick-! me is an 
instrument of death to the coarse herbage of meadows.' 
The ? aine authority says that it is also known to change 
the taste of certain kinds of grasses altogether. ' If a 
handful of lime be 'brown on a tuft of rank sour grass, 
which has in former years been invariably refused by 
cattle, they will after-wards en t close down.' Fine 
pasture lands hare likewise been found to lie matt rially 
benefited by a top-dressing rtf the mineral in mild 
1 form. 
