566 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [December r, 1881. 
the failings of Indian dyers, and how, particularly ^ as I 
regards mordants and improved fabrics, these failings 
may be met and overcome. Private knowledge, private 
energy, private captial, and, let us hope, private profit 
should complete the work which Government has begun. 
It will surely be a good day for Indian trade when 
fabrics steeped in fugitive aniline dyes shall cease to 
"Mock the ah with colours idly spread," 
and the beautiful bright hues imparted by turmeric, 
safflower, and the rest shall be blended by European 
taste, and rendered really permanent by the application 
of scientific principles under the auspices of European art. 
TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED 
STATES. 
The preliminary report of the Census Department on 
this branch of industry shows an apparent increase in 
production of 80 per cent, which exaggerates the real 
advance in tobacco cultivation, as the preceding census 
crop was a small one, and the fear of taxation may 
have operated to prevent a full census of tobacco in 
1870. The crop in 1880 was one of medium production, 
not in excess of the present requirements of home con- 
sumption and exportation. Fifteen of the States produce 
more than 99 per cent of the tobacco of the United 
States, though it is grown, more or less, in 22 other 
States ard six territories. The following is the yield of 
the seven leading States in tobacco cultivation : — 
Pounds 
State. Acreage. Pounds. per acre. 
Kentucky .. 226,127 .. 171,121,134 .. 756 
Virginia .. 139,423 .. 80,099,838 .. 573 
Pennsylvania. 27,567 .. 36,957,772 .. 1,340 
Ohio .. .. 34,679 .. 34,725,405 .. 1,001 
Tennessee .. 41,532 .. 29,365,052 .. 707 
North Carolina 57,215 .. 29,936,448 .. 471 
Maryland .. 38,174 .. 26,082,147 .. 683 
While these States, together with Wisconsin, Connecticut, 
and New York, have all increased their cultivation, some 
of them, such as Pennsylvania, to a market degree, 
others, such as Massachusetts, West Virginia, Indiana, 
Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee, have retrograded. The 
average yield per acre is 731 lb. The variation in 
rate of yield, from 1,599 lb. in Massachusetts to 471 
lbs. in North Carolina, is due in differing degree to the 
use or neglect of fertilisers, the habit of growth of 
different varieties, and the vicissitudes of the season. In 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and 
Wisconsin, the seed-leaf varieties are mainly grown and 
high fertilisation practised, always resulting in heavy 
crops. In Ohio, the yield is above the average, the 
Ohio seed-leaf being extensively cultivated in the Miami 
valley, while the Burley, a vigorous grower of less pro- 
ductive character, is almost exclusively cultivated in the 
Ohio river counties. Kentucky, producing many grades of 
cutting and shipping tobaccos upon an exhausted soil of 
original fertility, makes an average yield. The low yield in 
North Carolina is due to the production of the fashionable 
yellow " bright" grade used for plug wrappers, grown on a 
poor soil with low fertilisation, sufficient to stimulate early 
growth, but not enough to prevent early maturing. — British 
Mail. 
TAHITI AND SAN FRANCISCO TRADE. 
In an article on Tahiti and the Society Islands, by 
J. Pinet, and translated for the San Francisco Journal 
of Commerce, he dwells particularly on the trade with 
San Francisco. He says : — 
The greater part of the merchandise consumed in the 
country comes from San Francisco. Of a great number 
of vessels engaged in the transportation of this mer- 
chandise, there are tlu'eo carrying about 350 tons each 
subsidized by the local government for carrying the' 
mails between Papeete and San Francisco, which depart 
alternately from San Franc isco for Tahiti on the 1st, 
and from Papeete for San Francisco on the 12th of 
each month. Those which leave San Francisco touch 
at the marquesas, those that clear from Papeete sail 
directly to San Francisco. The cargoes carried by these 
vessels from San Francisco, consist of a great variety 
of articles — flour, bread, rice, wine, provisions of all 
descriptions, furniture, caniages, American stuffs, lumber, 
etc. The return cargoes are made up principally of 
oranges, coconuts, lime juice and vanilla, for the 
markets of San Francisco, and cotton, pearl shells and 
pearls, in transit for the markets of Europe. 
The soil of Tahiti is of great fertility — its principal 
productions are cotton ; equalling " Sea Island cotton" — 
sugar, to the production of which the climate is ex- 
ceptionally favourable, and winch is noted for its fine 
appearance and its great similarity to New Orleans 
sugar, and the coconut, which dried is, under the name 
coprah, despatched to the great European markets. There 
is obtained from it an abundant oil, excellent for the 
manufacture of various qualities of soap. It is to be 
regretted that coprah, which Tahiti and most of the 
islands of the Archipelago produce in great quantity, 
should not find a regular market in San Francisco, as 
it would be a very convenient means of exchange, and 
there is no doubt that if it could be utilized with profit 
in California, this alone would give rise to a considerable 
trade between Papeete and San Francisco. This would 
render profitable the establishment of a line of steamers 
— so desirable — between Tahiti and San Francisco. If, 
as we all hope, the idea of this line of steamers is 
about to become an accomplished fact, not only would 
the two points of arrival and departure secure great 
commercial advantages, but Tahiti would, without doubt, 
become one of the favorite places of resort for a great 
number of the people of the Pacific Coast, who would 
travel over an ocean, which is almost always magnificent 
in its aspect, in less than 20 days. The climate of 
Tahiti is one of the healthiest and most agreeable in 
the whole world. The soil, traversed by a great number 
of living streams of an extreme purity, produces in 
abundance, and without cultivation, the orange, the citron, 
a great variety of bananas, ananas, bread fruit, besides 
a large number of other delicious fruits. The Isle of 
Tahiti, which was rightly named by the first European 
who touched there as the new Cythera, is a veritable 
terrestrial paradise. 
There is no doubt, adds the editor, that a great trade 
will grow up in the future between San Francisco and 
these Islands, and it is our belief that San Francisco 
merchants should cultivate and foster this trade, and 
that they should take an interest in the development 
of the Islands. The area is given at 450 square miles, 
or 288,000 acres ; small, it is true, but under a tropical 
sun capable of producing out of all proportion to its 
extent. — American Exporter. 
PERIODICITY OF RAINY AND DRY YEARS. 
M. de Parville has published in the Journal des D chats a 
paper on the temperature of the present year, which at Paris 
has risen to a height exceeding all previous authentic re- 
cords. On July 5th, at the Observatory in the Park of St. 
Mam-, the Centigrade thermometer registered 35'6 degrees, 
and on July 15th, 37'8 degrees. The highest temperature 
previously recorded during the present century was 3 6'75 
degrees on July 31st, 1803. Higher temperatures have 
been recorded, but their authenticity has been questioned. 
Thus, Cassini has recorded 40 degrees for August 17th, 
1701 ; but it is believed that the true temperature was only 
36-85 degrees. So, also, the temperatures set down by 
Messier of 39 degrees in 1763, and 40 degrees in 1765, are 
attributed to errors of observation, and should be corrected 
to 36 - 6 and 37 - 5 degrees respectively. M. de Parville passes 
on to ask whether the dryness of the present summer could 
