THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1881. 
to pot them off into very small pots for our Whit- 
suntide church decorations. Imagine my surprise when 
I found the roots so matted together that I could not 
separate the bulbs in any other way than by cutting 
them out in squares about the size of the bulbs. I 
tried to pull some up, but the stalks, flowers, and all 
parted from the bulbs rather than lose I heir hold on 
this free, open material. The half which I left to 
bloom undisturbed in the box garden pave exception- 
ally fine spikes, &c. No greater proof is wanting that 
this manure is perfectly innocuous, and most valuable. 
I think it has received a most undeserved bad name 
from the fact that "sawdust manure" was at one 
time only to be had at the Zoological Gardens. Doubt- 
less this mixture was too powerful for direct applica- 
tion to any vegetable growth. Those who now use 
it say little for or against it, because, as it is got 
very cheaply, it is to their interest to do so. It is 
in great demand in the neighbourhood of Manchester. — 
William Earley. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Libeeian Coffee Seed: a Serious "Sell." — A 
low-country planter writes :— "W. got 18 months ago 
'Liberian coffee' seed, and it all came to be ordinary 
coffee, or did not germinate at all, and for the latter 
he was supplied with about 60,000 more about a year 
ago. In consequence of it all coming like this, he has 
lost a clearing for a year, and — who bought 
plants has also lost about 30 acres. And this seed 
got from those supposed to be noted planters and fine 
men. I Buspected lor a long time, but for months 
I was not looking after the place, and I have only 
now resumed management, and in doiDg so I told all 
I thought, and wrote to all the people who had bought 
plants, and my answer is the same: 'Plants no use, 
undoubtedly common coffee."' This is certainly a 
very hard case ; but if the seed was imported, it may 
turn out not to be ordinary Coffea Arabics, even though no 
larger. One Ceylon planter who visited Liberia told us he 
saw coffee from the size of a pea (St. Thome coffee) 
up to the largest Liberian. Our correspondent's may 
turn out after all to be a new West African variety. 
Wait a little longer. 
A New Industry. — A correspondent calls our atten- 
tion to the following paragraph :— Sponge Culture : 
Prom the recently-issued report of Professor Baird, the 
Commissioner to the United States, we glean some 
very interesting facts regarding the recent develop- 
ment of this industry. Among the more recent en- 
terprises in the way of the artificial propagation of 
aquatic animals is that relating to the artificial pro- 
pagation of the sponge of commerce. Professor Oscar 
Schmidt, of the University of Gratz, has been so 
successful in his preliminary efforts in this direction 
that the Austrian Government have authorized him 
to attempt the development of the industry on the 
coast of Dalmatia. The process is- very simple, con- 
sisting in selecting the proper season in the spring, 
dividing a living marketable sponge into numerous 
small pieces, and then fastening them to stakes driven 
into the sea bottom. These fragments at once begin 
to grow out, and at the end of a given time each one 
becomes an entire sponge. According to Dr. Schmidt, 
three years is a sufficient length of time to obtain 
from very small pieces fair-siz d sponges. In one ex- 
periment, the cost of raising 4,000 sponges amounted 
only to £9, and this included the interest for three 
years on the capital employed.— London Times. 
Demand for Indian Tea.— The Civil and Military 
Gazette. — The last issue of the Indian lea Gazette 
contain* a letter headed, "A. proposed relief for 
overstocked markets," which contains it seems to us 
some valuable suggestions on the tea question. Peoples 
as well as individuals may look for a field while 
what they seek is really beneath their feet,— and 
this is what the writer of the letter we are refer- 
ring to would have us believe is the case with the 
tea planters seekiug a market for their produce. 
The cry now-a days is — develope the Australian mar- 
ket ; educate the people of England up to a taste 
for Indian teaR; and so forth. But why do this 
when we have around us a tea-loving population of 
over 200,000,000 souls? If the natives do not drink 
tea, what is the reason of their abstention '! — we know 
there is hardly anything which they prize more 
highly. The aDSwer is easy enough. They can- 
not afford it, at the prices ruling, and they 
cannot, as a rule, get it in smaller quantities than 
1 lb. packets. The plan proposed is briefly this. To 
start a Company having for its object the ' 'bulking" 
and packing of teas in small packets say 2 oz., 4 
oz., and 8 oz., — selling this tea at a fixed price to 
retail dealers, who could eell the teas, it, is calcu- 
lated, allowing a fair profit to themselves, the mid- 
dleman and the Couirjany, at 1 anna 9 pie for a 
2 oz, rjacket, and 3 annas for a 4 oz. packet, sup- 
posing the tea to be bought, as we believe it might 
be, at six annas per lb. all round. If such a Com- 
pany were once started, we feel pretty confident 
that an enormous demand for Indian tea would 
spring up among the natives. A own on a low sa- 
lary will hesitate a long time before he commits 
such an extravagance as investing a rupee and a 
quarter, say in a pound of tea, but that same man 
would probably gladly give his three nnnas for a four 
oz. packet. The Company would also find a market 
for small lots of certain classes of tea, which when 
'bulked' would command a far better price than 
when sold separately in smill lots. — Madras Mail. 
Indian Wheat.— With reference to the report of 
Dr. Forbes Watson on Indian wheat which we men- 
tioned a short time ago we may give the following 
extracts from a letter of Mr. Alex. Smith, published 
by the Indian Government, on the same subject: — 
"I may remark that many of these wheats are much 
superior to the bulk ordinarily received from India 
on this market both in point of 1° cleanness [i.e., 
freedom from earth, earthy dust, weevil cutting and 
admixture of other grain ; 2° quality, and 3° size of 
berry, and this is particularly the case with 1° the 
long-berried hard wheats, and 2° the wheats classified 
as resembling Australian, Oregon, Spanish and Cali- 
fornian. Care and cleaning machinery seem to he 
greatly wanted both by the agriculturists and wheat 
dealers in India. If the growers would prepare a 
clean seedbed, and sow clean seed of the proper kind, 
such as any of those samples marked 'Extra' as 
may be. most suitable to the land in queetion, then it 
appears from the quality of these samples that much 
of the Indian soil is suitable for growing the most 
valuable descriptions of wheat, and that India could 
always command the top prices of the day for its 
wheat shipments. During the last few months some 
shipments of very fine wheats have arrived here from 
Bombay showing a marked improvement in quality on 
those usually received from Calcutta." The Secretary 
of State for India, in forwarding this letter to the 
Indian Government remarked : — "It would be interest- 
ing if a report could be furnished by your Government 
giving some description of the nature of the soils in 
which the better classes of wheats indicated in these 
reports are grown, as well as of the system of 
cultivation followed. Thus it would be desirable to 
know whether the best wheats are raised on irrigated 
or on manured land, also whether the land has been 
long cultivated with wheat crops, and what is the 
average weight of crop per acre. It has been alleged 
that the productive power of the soil in some parts 
of India has begun to fail, and it should be ascertained 
whether there is any evidence of this in respect to the 
quality and quantity of the wheat crops raised." 
