670 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1882. 
Irrigation in Mauritious. — Government is in- 
trodueiug an ordinance to facilitate irrigation enter- 
prizes, the draft of which lias already hem submitted to 
Council ; and we may remark that the law, if carried into 
effect, will have the result of enabling individual sugar 
planters to do a great deal in the way of irrigating 
their own estates. — Mercantile and Commercial Gazette. 
Sponges are now grown by cutting small portions 
from the parent sponge aud fixing them under water 
by skewers on a sandy bottom. They at once begin 
to glow, and are said to be ready for the marker, in 
three years. In the experiment made abroad, 4,000 
sponges were grown at a cost of $50, and successful 
experiments of the same kind are now being made on 
the coast of Florida. — New York Hour. 
Tea. — The attempt made by a Calcutta Syn- 
dicate to introduce Indian tea into Australia has 
proved highly successful, so far as Melbourne is con- 
cerned. The Indian Tea Gazette states thao no less than 
671,000 lb. have been soid there up to the 30th 
June 1881, and the Syndicate alone proposes this season 
to send about 400,000 lb. to Australia. The efforts to 
introduce Indiau tea have so far been only strikingly 
successful in Victoria, but the ot'ner colonies will no 
doubt follow. The Syndicate is now directing its atten- 
tion to the United States, where, owing to the demand 
being tor green and semi-green teas, such as Ooloog-J, it 
is to be feared that more difficulty will be found 
than in the case of Australia. It would appear that 
Russia, a hitherto untried field, was a much mop- 
hopeful one, especially for Dirjeeling and other fine 
hill teas, which if introduced would no doubt sell exceed- 
ingly well there. The Russians are not only great tea- 
drinkers, but are real connoisseurs and prepaid dandaccus- 
tomed to pay very high prices, so that the finest Indian 
teas would probably be better appreciated there than 
anywhere -lse. These attempts to open up new markets 
on the part of a Syndicate of planters and merchants, 
aided by a Government subvention, are highly inter 
esting, and, indeed, admirable adaptations, of compar- 
atively small means to a highly important end An 
individual could not afford to venture on an unknown 
market, but an association, especially backed by Go- 
vernment, can readily do so, and can afford to risk an 
immediate loss in the hope of opening up a new 
demand. They can also bulk the tea and feed the 
new demand with regular small supplies, till the 
usual trade inquiry is created. The Indian planters 
cau hardly be urged too strongly to seek fresh outlets 
for their produce. The cultivation of tea seems to be 
spreading rapidly through the tropics, while the de- 
mand does not increase in proportion. In this 
country the low prices of the past few years have 
made 2s per lb. the chief retail piice, and an increas- 
ing quantity of tea is sold at that exceedingly low 
quotation. With a duty of 6d per lb. and the cost 
of crriage, delivery, packing, paper, string, &c, 
together with the profit of 1 he wholesale and retail 
deilers, this looks as if in a few years the average 
selling market price of Indian tea here would have to 
fall to 1« per lb— fine tea, of course, fetching more, and 
con. moo tea less. This in a serious omlook for the 
Indian planters, hut steadily faced it can doubtless be 
overcome, as other difficulties in India have been. It has 
constantly to be borne in mind that good sound or- 
dinary China t-a can be laid down here at a profit at 
a selling price of Sd, per lb, while all idea of such 
tea beng adult' rat: d should be dismissed as baseless. 
The Produce Markets Review, from which we take 
the above, being issued by a firm of tea dealers, we 
can scarcely be surprised at the concluding para- 
graph. We may, however, offer our own opinion 
litt if good, unadulterated tea is sold at 8d per lb. 
e tber the grower, the middleman, or the merchant 
will be ruined. Profit at such a price is impossible 
tvtu to CliincBc. 
Sale of Callsiya Lldgeriana Seed by Mr. C. 
E, H. Symons at public auction, 13th Dec. 1881 :— 
1 box containing 2 grammes (a 34 R 34 
1 „ „ 2 „ 29 29 
3 boxes ea. ,. 2 „ 26 78 
3 ,, „ „ 2 „ 23 69 
4 „ „ „ 2 „ 24 84 
12 „ „ „ 2 „ 20 240 
24 R534 
[or about R310 per ounce. — Ed.] 
Copper Ore in Ceylon.— Mr. A. C. Dixon writes :— 
"I do not know whether y>u remember a specimen 
sent to you some time ago. I said I thought it 
was iron pyrites : it was much tarnished ; and after- 
wards you said some authority call d, and said it 
looked like a manganese ore which he had -een in 
Spain. I tested it yesterday and find it to be peacock 
copper ore containing over 20 per cent of copper with 
iron and sulphur. Can you tell me what locality it came 
from?" The sample refei red to must have come to us 
some four to six months ago, and u fortunately we 
cannot now trace it. The specimen was finely varie- 
gated like a peacock's tail. Who has got the cop- 
per depo it or reef with 20 per cent of metal— more 
valuable than most gold mines ? 
Rapid Growth of the Blue Gum in Ceylon.— 
Unless io be ou the rich-soiled, moist mountains of 
Fernshaw, Gippsland, and similar localities, the Eu- 
calypti grow much more rapidly in the hill region of 
C ylon than in their own native habittat in Australia, 
or even Tasmania. We have .seen trees of t i- spe- 
cies growing so frequently at an inciedibly rapid rate, 
that we are not surprized at what a planting crre- 
spondent writes, thus : — What do you say to the 
following growth of a blue gum tree on this estate ? 
The seed was sown in the nursery in Octob r 1879, 
and tiie plant was put out in August 18^0. I mea- 
sured the tree this morning, and found it about 27 
feet in height and 18 iuches in girth, about a foot and 
half above the ground. If only our " Ledgerianas " 
would grow like that! 
Tea Culture in Australia. — With reference to 
this subject a Sydney journal, Town, and Country, has 
the following paragraph : — The tea plant was introduced 
aud cultivated in Sydney more than fifty years ago. It 
was from this first introduction that the plant was first 
distributed throughout this and the neighbouring colo- 
nies, although, more recently, fresh importations, claim- 
ingto be the first, have been made, l'l ore have been 
large quantities of tea seeds produced in many Sydney 
and country gardens for more than foity y.ars past. 
In the year 1846 or '47 a fine sample of tea of Sydney 
growth was exh bited by Mr. T. W. Shepherd at one 
of the Horticultural Society's exhibition- t was 
prepared from the very young ltaves, and had the 
appearance and flavour of what is known as gun- 
powder tea. A sample of the latter which cost 16s 
per lb. in China, was shown with the colonial-made 
sa nple, and there was very little diff< rence either in 
appearance or taste. This, we presume, was the first 
sample of tea made n Australia, aud publicly ex- 
hibited. The honour has been claimed lor persons 
in at least two of the sister colonn s, lo>h as to the 
introduction of, the plant aud the preparation of the 
leaves. The plant might be giowu in every garden 
iu the colon* where the clima e is not colder than 
will suit the orange tree. The best teas in China 
are gathered in mountain districts, in the val- 
leys and slopes formed by mountains whose summits 
are sometimes capped with snow. The plant is 
hardy at Melbourne and Hobait, as well as Sydney. 
We need scarcely repeat our belief that without In- 
dian labour, and even with that labour, Australia is 
never likely to grow its own tea. 
