306 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1881. 
1. The acquisition of a tract of perhaps 30,000 
acres in New Zealand, for the purposes partly of a 
Land Settlement Association, and partly for the in- 
auguration and prosecution of tea production and 
sericiculture. 
2. The affording of pleasant and remunerative em- 
ployment to women and girls. 
3. The attraction of the aborigines to systematised 
habits of usefulness. 
It has been suggested that the proposed tea and 
silk farming operations should be conducted some- 
what as follows :— An expanse of say 3,000 of acres 
suitable land having bepn selected, the area to be 
gradually planted with tea and mulberry shrubs at 
the rate of 100 or more acres of each per annum, 
according to the capital subscribed. Meanwhile other 
lucrative articles of commerce, such as grapes, oranges, 
lemons, small fruit, honey, suga'r, &c, might have 
portions of the estate assigned to their special pro- 
duction, most of them yielding a more encouraging 
return generally than that from ordinary farming. 
During the time the tea and mulberry bushes were 
maturing, the former in four years and the latter in 
two years if transplanted when two years old — no 
income from their produce would accrue; but these 
periods would be partly employed in erecting the 
necessary buildings, digging, and arranging water- 
services, fixing water-wheels, erecting the machinery 
required, and extending the cultivation and develop- 
ment of the whole estate. In the course of the second 
year, the first of the mulberry leaf crop would be 
ready for plucking, when, all being in a state of 
preparation and wages moderate, a return in cocoons, 
raw silk, and grain, of probably £80 per acre might 
be anticipated. It may not bs out of place at this 
point to mention that, considerable as this estimate 
may appear, it is dwarfed by the average returns 
from agriculture in America — which are sometimes 
£93 per acre for honey alone— and from oranges in 
New South Wales, where certain groves possess indi- 
vidual trees which for twenty years have yielded 
three hundred dozens of oranges each, showing a 
gross return of .£500 per acre per annum. Indeed, 
the experience of mulberry-growing in other patts of 
the world teaches that well-situated and thoroughly- 
cultivated areas of twenty-five-year-old bushes double 
their yield after five years in situ, when, of course, 
the harvest of cocoons may be double also. 
Until the fourth year, as already stated, there would 
be no appreciable return from the acreage under tea, 
but during that season leaf-gathering would commence, 
which, according to Chinese and Indian observation, 
"would annually improve up to about the twelfth year, 
when renewals of the plants might be required. Tea- 
growing at the Antipodes not having yet been at- 
tempted on a commercial scale, it would be premature 
to hazard an opinion as to the probable return per 
acre from this source. But having regard to the 'very 
suitable climate offered in Auckland, especially for 
teas of the China and Japanese type; recollecting 
that the demand on the spot is at present about 
one and a half million lb. per annum, with a con- 
stantly increasing tendency ; and keeping in view the 
circumstance that New Zealand-grown tea would not 
be S'ddled with the expensive items of inland con- 
veyance and freight to a distant country, which 
handicap the products of China, India, and Ceylon, 
experts who hsve studied the matter are of opinion 
that, after allowing liberally for higher-priced labour, 
the cost of producing tea in this Colony will probably 
compare most favourably with the outlay elsewhere. 
One of the early effects of the prosperous initia- 
tion of tea and silk farming would be the immediate 
influx of the numerous kindred professions, arts, and 
trades which in older communities are invariably 
found clustering around the chief centres of import- 
ant industries. To accomodate these, the surrounding 
land would become available, and the farmers, labour- 
ers, and others would provide food for the Colony, 
and furnish a supply of reliable outdoor labour for 
emergencies. 
I have no hesitation in appealing to the phil- 
anthropists of both sexes throughout the British Empire 
in favour of the proposal to employ women and girls 
of education in some of the more delicate m mipula- 
tions connected with the production of both tea 
and silk. Every year numbers of delicately-nurtured 
and well-educated females are, through death, mis- 
fortune, or other causes, left destitute. Many of these 
ladies, although unable perhaps to support themselves 
becomingly at home after a crisis, would prove valu. 
able assistants in the operation of tea and silk culture 
in one or other of the Colonies, and in such service 
find a comfortable and independent refuge. " They 
know nothing about the management of either pro- 
duct," it may be urged. True, perhaps, jet they 
might learn. It so happens that the opportunity of 
gaining instruction in the mysteries of at least the 
silk industry from ladies like themselves may very 
soon be brought within reach. Along the Levant, 
silk in its various forms is largely produced under 
purely domestic circumstances by many respectable 
liuropean ladies, who, I am told by an eminent authority 
at present in London, "piece out a subsistence 
by this occupation." Among these ladies it is believed 
there are some English widows with daughters, left 
with small means, who would doubtless be only too 
glad to go to New Zealand among their country- 
women, and give practical lessons in their interesting 
avocation. 
There are many points connected with the proposal 
as a whole, which would require more space than I 
could expect any journal to afford for their elucidation. 
Enough has perhaps been said for the present, how- 
ever, to extend the feeling of interest in the enter- 
prise which has already been created, and I shall be 
happy to reply to any bona fide enquiry concerning 
it which may be addressed as below. — I remain, &c, 
July 21. William Cochran. 
THE CULTIVATION OF BAMBOO. 
(From the Indian Tea Gazette, 6th August 1881.) 
Happening to take up the Indian Agriculturalist 
for 2nd June 1879, containing the report of a meeting 
at the Society of Arts on March 7th, 1879, I could 
hardly believe my eyes as I read therein the opinions 
of some of the speakers. The exhibition of so much 
ignorance, by earnest men met to discuss and forward 
an economic question of moment, was humiliating, 
and Mr. Routledge himself seemed as much in the 
dark as any of them. 
At page 200 he says: "The young bamboo sprang 
from the seed of the old plant, and it took about 
15 years before it became silicious. No matter what 
species it might be, it went on maturing for a series 
of years, and being an entogenous plant, it grew 
until the inside g >t filled up and it could grow no 
longer. It could then no longer transmit the sap, its 
pores or vessels became ossified, like the veins of 
an old man, and it died having first seeded." Now 
there are some 14 or 15 kinds out here in Eastern 
Bengal that I know pretty well, have planted Baries 
and cropped them for some 12 years, yet I must say 
there is not one single statement in the quotation 
that is accurate, even approximately. 
The Bamboos here vary greatly in kind, in size, 
modes of propagation, in value, &c, but taking the 
most common and most useful one, the " Jati " (or 
one with best jat) let us compare notes. 1st. — It does 
not seed, and is propagated, like most others, by a 
young root and piece of stem 8 or 10 feet long trans-' 
planted. 2nd. — These stocks are of young and not 
"old plant." 3rd. — The Bamboo generally becomes 
