November t, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
4i3 
TEA AND SILK. FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 
For the Tea ] 
of one-year-old t 
Ceylon, Assam, 
livereil at the ne 
at cost price, o 
tion of labour fr 
y. — (1) The necessary supply 
its and fresh seed from China, 
ijlgherries and Darjeeling, de- 
nt to the proposed plantations 
(2) Facilities for the importa- 
ina, India, or elsewl ere ; and 
ion to the planter against the 
.-land to the acreage pur- 
laced figure, or free. (4) 
ty by the Customs of all 
, and machinery necessary 
icture, and packing, for a 
'reedom from duty or excise 
and prepared within the 
y<' : 
-(6) The necessary supply 
per acre — of five-year-old white 
ted on black mulberry stocks, 
nds and seed from Sydney or 
icedful quantities of any other 
bs. such as the castor-oil plant, 
ijube trees, the ailanthus, &c., 
3^t port to the proposed planta- 
■ free. (7) Facilities in regard 
freedom from duties, as in the 
id such encouragement as would 
ettlement of skilled reelers from 
throwsters from England, and 
of all the elaborate mechi 
■ branches of the silk industry. 
'H'.m'it Journal. 
CASUARINA CULTIVATION. 
TO THE EDITOR OK TIIE "MADRAS MAIL. " 
Sir, — Referring to an extract from The Eurasian 
and Anglo-Indian Advocate which appeared in your 
iame of 20th July, regarding tho cost of planting casua- 
rinas, the writer says: — " It is estimated that under 
rourable circumstances as much as R100 
ill be required for the first year.'' On re- 
his estimate for planting six acres I find, 
ting an item 'cost of watering and all sun- 
dries' which 1 will suppose is expenditure incurred 
after the first year, the cost of raising, planting and 
tending for one year, on six acres, to be 1(15(5 or 
R151 per acre. 
The writer of the extract also says: — "Land for 
gtsuarina cultivation may be had for RIO per acre. 
very unri 
per acre 1 
(erring to 
after dedu 
I iha I say R'20 to h 
to his estimated abstract 
I Bad 81,400 a-« gross e 
on referring to detailed 
charpc f«>r cost of land, 
on an outlay of R 1,400 
bo M2'8 por cent instei 
tho writer of this, or the . 
to, ho so good as to ox] 
put me 
Travanoore, 3rd Sept. 
.de. ' On goinj^ 
and expenditure, 
on 6 acres ; but 
cannot find any 
profit of R7,(100 
d if I am wrong 
RIGHT. 
THE CULTIVATION OF CASUARINAS. 
At tho moetii'12 on tho 3rd ultimo, of tho Madras 
An B irticultural Society, there was read an article 
on "The Profit of Casunrina Cultivation," published 
in the Madras Mail of the 20th July last, as an 
cxtr.o! rom Th h'»rasinn and A ntjlo- Indian Adraratr, 
in which it is reckoned that 18,000 trees mny ho grown 
on six aorei of land to produce 8 annas each in four 
year*, at v groii expenditure of Rl.ioo resulting in 
a art profit of KT.liOO, or a return in four years of 
104 
550 per cent. The Honorary Secretary, who has had 
considerable personal experience in this matter, stated 
that such estimates are liable to cause much inisobief 
by inducing people to speculate without the means. 
"The most successful casuarina planters in the 
neighbourhood of Madras, where the land is specially 
adapted to the industry, plant only .'300 trees to the 
acre, and consider themselves very fortunate if, after 
being twelve to fifteen years without return for their 
money, they can cut an average of anything over 
forty toii3 of firewood to the acre ; or if, in other 
words, they get their wood to market so as to give 
a net return, at R6 per ton, of R240 p r acre. 
Multiplying this sum by 6 we have a return of R 1,440 
for six acres, against the writer's estimated expenditure 
of RI.400. Thus, the business is only really profitable 
when worked on a large scale ; when the trees are 
.allowed to grow for much more than four years ; when 
there are very good acres to make up for those that 
fail ; and when water is close enough at hand to 
allow of the expenses b-ing reduced to the lowest 
possible amount." We have been informed that no 
area under 100 acres will pay Europeans, and that 
these 100 acres must be good land. N«tiv s who 
plant email plots make profit because they use only 
the unpaid labour of their own families. Last year 
as an experiment a correspondent of ours cut an acre 
of seven year old trees — an average one. Its produce 
wa3 just under 7 tons, and the net value of the wood 
was about R5 a ton, so the acre yielded but R35 
after seven years' waiting for returns. —Madron Mail. 
SILK IN THE PUNJAB. 
The cocoons fiom imported seed are said by the 
manager of Messrs. Listers' filature to have beeu as 
fine as any in the world. This is an extremely satis- 
factory result, and one that the Lieutenant-Governor 
hopes will be maintained. It is to be regretted that 
the country seed should have become generally diseased, 
but his Honor does not think that it is necessary 
to take any special steps in this matter as | roposed 
by the Financial Commissioner and the Commissioner. 
From the facts stated by the Deputy Commissioner 
that very few country cocoons were exhibited this 
year, and that Messrs. Lister gratuitously distributed 
foreign seed to all breeders who agree to sell the 
produce to them, it appears certain that the foreign 
seed will supersede the country seed without any 
effort being made in this behalf. It is not likely 
that the moths and worms of the two c'asses are 
allowed to mix, but unle-s this is the case, the in- 
fecth 
I"' 
The return attached to the Deputy Commissioner's 
report shows that the produce of 2 maunds 26^ seers, 
of seed was 347 maunds, 2 seers of cocoons. The 
rough outturn of silk is put at 80.J maunds, but at 
the rate used by the Deputy Commissioner, v z. 10 41 
sects of silk per maund of cocoons, the amount would 
appear to be 90 maunds 12 ecois. This seems to be 
a satisfactory result, but it is not possiblo to com- 
pare the figures with those of p evious years, as tho 
former statistics of one or tho other of the distriota 
arc always incomplete in some particular, I'lio Lieu- 
tenant-Governor trusts that this information will be 
carefully recorded in tho future, aud an < flort should 
be made to gauge roughly the proportion which tho 
cocoons exhibited bear to the whole number produced 
in tho two district-. 
The development of mulberry plantations during 
the past year has boon satisfactory. Tho Irrigation 
Department hat been addressed as suggested by tho 
Financial Commissioner, and requested to plant mul- 
berry tree* as far as possible on the banks of tho 
Ban Doab canal snd its main distributaries in tho 
Qnrdaspnr district. — Indian Agriculturist. 
