122 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 188 
or later, as it is doing into America and Australia : 
and then there will be no corner of the earth where 
the sway of China ten will be undisputed. Java is 
competing too, and Ceylon is threatening : even the 
mu 1 ch-v„untfcd Johore is supposed to be seriou.ly 
considering the policy of exchanging for tea its rising 
plantations of coffee. 
I o believe the warning voices heard from Home, 
tho new reason is not opening auspiciously. England 
has not yet recovered from the recent depression, and 
cheapness is the watch- word of the dealer and the 
consumer. Notwithstanding a general lowness of 
price-, consumption at Home last year did not show 
the normal rate of increase in tea generally, but 
rajjher a fair increase in Indian and a heavy deficiency 
m China tea. The consumption in England in 1880, 
as we gather from the London annual tea circulars, 
was two-and-a-half million pounds less than in 1879 ; 
and as the consumption of Indian tea was eight 
millions larger in 1880 than in the previous year, the 
actual consumption^ China tea showed an unexpected 
falling off of ten millions and a half. This deficiency 
was largely remedied by an increase in the export from 
London to the continent of eight millions, an increase 
as welcome as it was unhoped-for; hut if it had not 
occurred, the collapse in China tea would have been 
frightful. This should give a serious warning to the 
sanguine buyers who are calculating the credits 
thty are about to exhaust in Hankow ; whether its 
lesson is appreciated, the next two months will show. 
Then* is little chance of the curtailment of the supply 
of Indian tea. Even at the low prices at which it 
was sold in Loudon this last season, it gave profits to 
all but the oldest and most expensive gardens, and 
until foreigners can supervise the packing of the 
leaf in China as tbey do in India, the pro- 
duce of the latter country will continue to have an 
unfair advantage. The time no doubt will come 
when we shall be able to go up and buy the raw 
leaf on its native bills, pack it by our own methods, 
and bring it down by railway to Shanghai for ship- 
ment ; but for years yet we labour under the dis- 
advantage of having to buy it just as the China- 
men choo.-e to prepare it, without any real knowledge 
of the total crop at any time, or any immediate 
power to manipulate the teas to suit the tastes of 
consumers. 
The most remarkable feature of the season now 
closiug is the enormous increase in the export from 
all China and Japan to foreign countries. In 1868-69 
the total export from all China and Japan to all 
foreign countries was about 205,000,000 pounds; 
eleven years afterwards, in 1879-80, it was nearly 
245,000,000 pounds, the increase in eleven years being 
forty millions, half of this increase being in Japan 
tea. This shows a wonderful expansion, considering 
that in those same eleven years, Indian tea assumed 
enormous proportions. But this last year has seen 
an increase as large as in the whole previous eleven 
years. The total export last year was 285,000.000 
pounds, or forty millions above that of the previous 
season. Japan is only responsible for five millions 
of this inciea e, the export of China tea alone being 
35,000,000 pounds above that of the season ending 
in i'S80. Half of this increase went to London: 
America. Australia, and the Continent divided among 
them the i ther half. It is easy to understand the 
present deprfsion of the London market, and to 
appn ciatp with what caution buyers should approach 
the -campaign now opening —North China Herald. 
FIJI. 
{From a Correspondent.) 
The planters are chiefly interested ,iu growing 
sugarcane, eoffee, and cotton. The spontaneous pro- 
lucl ol the cocoanut-tree is also turned lo lucrative 
account. There are some other industries of minor 
importance. The sugarcane (Vico, if it is the true 
cane) is an indigenous plant and attains to a height 
of from 20 to 30 feet. But the best kinds of foreign 
cane have been introduced, and are seen on .the 
plantations, which are not a tangled mass of cane, 
as in India, but are carefully and systeinatically- 
plauted-fields. The plan adopted is on this wise : 
pieces with five eyes or points are laid (two inches 
under ground) end on in parallel rows, about five 
fr et being left between the ende and the rows so that a 
cart can- be taken down in any direction : thus 
during the growing process, the canes get light and 
ventilation, and can be readily wa'ched and tended. 
The average yield is 35 tons the acre. Crushing 
power is at present very limited, but the advantage 
to be gained by the erection of modern machinery 
on a large scale has been seen by the wealth}' and im- 
portant Australian Sugar Refining Company, which 
is now putting up extensive works on one of the 
most promising cane-growing islands, Viti Levu. But 
there is plenty of room elsewhe-e fos similar en- 
terprise, with equally good prospects. The crushing 
now takes place all the year round ; it is a bad 
system, but the want of mills with adequate crush- 
ing power necessitates the commencement of cutting 
before maturity, and the leaving a large part of 
the crop to over-ripen for months. The result is that 
the density of the juice from one crop is very uneven, 
and is seldom taken at its highest. Still, with all 
its drawbacks, the industry is a paying one, and 
will in time be highly remunerative to both planters 
and mill-owners. The exportation of sugar rose from 
£3,417 in 1875 to £26,687 in 1879 ; the land under 
cane cultivation being now ahout 2,000 acres. Coffee 
is being successfully cultivated, but it is only within 
the last three or four years that it has attracted the 
serious attention of the planters, and already they hav« 
had to contend with disease, necessitating the de- 
struction of at least one plantation. The crop, picked in 
1880, yielded from 300 to 4501b the acre, and the berry 
was of good quality and flavour. The beautiful island 
of Taviuni takes the lead in coffee, but there are 
flourishing plantations on other islands, and there seems 
to be no reason why coffee should not be as successfully 
cultivated in the Pacific as in Ceylon and in India, 
and find as good markets. Cotton — Sea-island cotton 
— has world-wide celebrity ; it is easily cultivated in 
the Fijis, but the production has latterly fallen away, 
the quotations being too low to tempt the planter. 
At present there are about 3,000 acres under cotton, 
but the exports have dwindled from £28,706 in 1875 
to £15,690 in 1877. The prices quoted last year 
were from 2s. to 2*. 6d. per lb., and if those prices 
couid be maintained no doubt a fresh impetus would 
be given to the industry. The great industry is 
co[ r a-making, a very simple one, affording a maxim- 
um of profit with a minimum of risk, outlay, and 
trouble. One tree is held to yield 100 nuts a year ; 
50 trees are planted to the acre, giving about one 
ton of copra, worth on the plantation £12 10s. But, 
as a rule, the trees are far too closely planted, 
especially on the old plantations, and are cover- 
ed with creepers ; so that for want of light and 
air, they are not nearly so fruitful as they otherwise 
would be. It is calculated that there are about 10,000 
acres under cocoanut, and- the value of the copra ex- 
poitecl rose in 1878 to £122,194. Besides the copra, 
the fibre and oil are valuable products ; and it is very 
clear, therefore, that cocoanut-tree planting is a pro- 
Stable industry in the Fijis. It may be remarked, 
in passing, that the smell from copra is so di-gusting 
as to make the propinquity of a copra store house, or 
life on board ship with a freight of it, very trying. 
Among the minor agricultural or forest products it 
pays to cultivate or collect for exportation, are ground 
nuts, of which the annual export is at present about 
£3,000 ; arrowroot, some of which is of excellent 
