THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1881. 
double expense, which will probably come heavy on 
your tea-planters. Or the plan of one energetic agent 
may be adopted for both Sydney and Melbourne, 
only the two capital cities, with an occasional run 
into the interior. Or, one agent may be appointed for 
only New South Wales, the Colony best adapted for 
the purpose, and should the trade take root there, 
then Victoria be afterwards taken in hand. These 
last two plans would email only, with one agent, a 
single cost. 
I think I have detailed enough, without being too 
prolix ; and I am ready with both my knowledge of 
tea, and practical knowledge of Australia and the 
subject, to place all my services heartily at your 
disposal to ground and establish the trade in tea of 
Ceylon with Australia. I am sure of success. 
But of course for such an end the tea-planters of 
Ceylon must unite and form a Syndicate as in India, 
and I must enter into a regular engagement with 
their recognized managing agents in Colombo, who 
ought to be one of the leading and most respectable 
firms there. 
In my case personally, for I cannot answer for 
the cost of the sei vices of others, the expense 
would amount to about £600 per annum for a 
period of two or three years, as salary £300, as 
travelling expenses and room rent £300. I am con- 
vinced the thing could not be done for less with 
any agent worth entertaining. After the above period, 
the trade being better known and grounded, the 
travelling expense may be reduced. A small com- 
mission over sales above a certain quantity may be 
added as an additional incentive to effort. 
My plan is now before you and your planting read- 
ers. They may be sure that no other will succeed, 
and that if the trade be not now established at the 
beginning it never will. They require to be united, 
and contribute only a very small fraction individually 
for a short period of say 3 years to see what may be 
done. Of course everything will depend on the abili- 
ty, energy, and thorough Australian knowledge of 
the agent. 
I have done, and you are at liberty to communi- 
cate my address to those who may wish to bring the 
subject to a practical issue. — Yours truly, 
ALEX. MACKENZIE CAMERON. 
[It is not likely that Mr. Cameron's proposal will 
receive attention for the present at least : one reason 
being that Ceylon has already half-a-dozen agents at 
work in the Southern Colonies : Messrs. Jas. Henty 
& Co. promise to do all they can for Ceylon teas ; 
Messrs. Poett and Henry have advertised themselves 
as Melbourne agents, and Mr. Rowbotham is doing 
something in tea in the same place. Mr. Hector 
Mackenzie is working hard and successfully to bring 
Ceylon tea into notice in New Zealand. Another 
planter is likely to start for Adelaide, there to estab- 
lish himself as a Ceylon agent, and an enterprising 
Colombo merchant has just started for Brisbane and 
Sydney to see what can be done in the Colonies, of 
which they are the capitals. All these gentlemen look 
to their commission for remuneration, and there is 
therefore no chance of the Ceylou tea plant3rs pay- 
£600 a year for a special "commercial traveller" of 
their own. Far better would it be to join the Cal- 
cutta Syndicate and get Ceylon teas introduced into 
America and other new countries under its auspices. — 
Ed.] 
Salt has been used most, successfully in the culti- 
vation of onions. It is said to expedite the growth of 
the onion while it destroys or weakens that of weeds, 
and does a great deal to ward off the attacks of in- 
sects. Grubs and wire worms cannot be destroyed by 
this agency without using it in such quantities as also 
to destroy vegetable life. — SoutJi of India Observer. 
AGRI-HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF INDIA. 
At a meeting held on the 26th May last, the follow- 
ing from Clements R. Markham, Esq., C. B., dated 
London, 27th March, in reply to an application for 
seed of Cuzco Maize and Quinua seed for trial in the 
Himalaya, as suggested by Captain Pogson w*s read :— 
•'A good supply of quiuua seed," writes Mr. Mark- 
ham," "was sent out to the Government of India in 
1874, which I obtained through Messrs. Antony Gibbs 
& Sons of Lima. Mr. Hume said it was haiku, but 
this is a mistake, hatliu is the " Chenopodium album" 
of the Punjab, which grows on the plains, and is not 
a hill product. Quinua is the " Chenopodium quinua," 
which is cultivated at very great elevations. I suppose 
the Government gave a portion of the quinua seecs sent 
out, in 1874, to the Agri-Horticultural Society of India. 
[The Society did not receive any.] I trust this was so 
for I fear that, in thb present state of affairs in Peru, 
it will be difficult to get fresh supplies for some time 
to come. All the chief ports are occupied by hostil" 
Chilian forces, there is no communication with the 
interior, and many of the merchants have left. It is 
quite uncertain how long this will last, but I will bear 
in mind your wishes both as regards Cuzco Maize and 
Quinua. Meanwhile I will consult Messrs. Gibbs as to 
the prospect of renewing communication with the 
interior of Peru." — Pioneer. 
AUSTR A LINDIAN FRUIT TRADE. 
The experiment that is about to be tried in Australia, of 
endeavouring to establish a trade with this country in 
fruit, is one that will have a direct interest for a large 
number of Anglo-Indians. Few stations, in eed, are 
so well off in this respect, that the prospect of a good 
and varied foreign supply — if it could be obtained 
at a reasonable cost — would not be most acceptable. 
Excepting for the brief season when the mango and 
lichi are obtainable, and the few places where, when 
obtainable, they are good, it must be cornered that 
the Mofussil has not much to boast of in the May of 
fruit. The tasteless water-melon, the sickly guava, 
pachydermatous oranges thick of flake aud innocent 
of juice, dry pomegranates and woolly custard -apples, 
to omit the commoner abominations of the country, 
are not these the total resources of an ordir ary Indian 
garden ? In Australia on the other hand, t'.^uiks to 
the admirable climate, English fruits have thriven 
as well almost as English rabbits ; so much so, 
that the excellence of the display in this branch of 
horticulture is said to have been a feature of the 
Melbourne Exhibition. It is not singular, therefore, 
that Mr. Buck, the zealous pioneer of Indo-Austra- 
lian trade, should have suggested that out of their 
superfluity, the Australians might turn their atten- 
tion to supplying India. It is stated that Mr. Buck 
has been in communication with the Horticultural 
Society of Victoria as to the quantity of fruit avail- 
able for export, and as to the prices at which it could 
be supplied. The Society seem to have entered into 
the idea very heartily ; and some of the leading 
growers have already inaugurated the trade by send- 
ing presentation cases to the Viceroy and to the 
Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. It would, of course, be 
premature to offer a conjecture on the prospects of 
success, until something is known of the prices at 
which it will be possible to offer the Australian 
produce in this country. The market, we should fear, 
would at first be very limited ; and unless it is 
carefully managed at starting, there will be little 
chance of any great extension. Were it not for the 
example of America, there would be a difficulty in 
believing that fruit conveyed from such a distane 
could ever be anything but an expensive luxury. As 
it is, however, there seems to be no reason why 
Melbourne pears and Tasmanian grapes should not 
enrich Indian dinner tables, within a month of their 
being gathered from the parent tree. — Pioneer. 
