Jan. 1, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
47S 
was clean, and bad been remarkable, when in its 
weeiy state, for a kind of orotolaria of extremely 
rapid growth, and very easy to manipulate. A plot 
of land was eeleoted for the experiment of growing 
this plant as a live mnloh on the ground amongst 
the coffee. Seed was easily procured, and the land was 
sown with it. The field was soon covered with the 
crotolaria, which grew Inxuriantly, and was taken np 
at maturity, just before it seeded and was spread on 
the ground as a mnloh; but the experiment failed. 
The mnloh was not nearly so effective there as on the 
stiff soil of Yakdessa, and was not good enough to 
oompensate for the injury, slight as it appeared to 
be, that was done to the coffee while the mulch plant 
was growing. Other indigenous plants have been 
similarly tried, experimentally, but the result of along, 
patient, and exhaustive experience of weeds in Ceylon 
plantations is so conclusive that notwithstanding the 
virtues set forth in the Magazine under review, our 
advice to anyone about to try the effect of weeds on his 
estate would be like Punch's advice to people about 
to marry— DoNT," 
I have used mana on Wocdstook estate as a 
muloh and on other estates as a manure, when out 
fresh with good results, Some parts of estates 1 
keep olean, some in weeds, turf, &o., as I find it 
necessary for the good of the plants. 
My advice to planters : study the wants of your 
plants, treat them well, preserve what soil you have, 
in good soil keep estate olean, grow weeds and 
turf where plants requires it; and marry — or you go to 
the wall.— Yours faithfully, HOLLO WAY. 
QUESTION: WHY SHOULD THE GOVEEN- 
MENT PUT A BOUNTY ON CHINA TEA 
TO THE INJUEY OF INDIAN AND 
CEYLON TEA PLANTEES, AND OF 
THE BEITISH CONSUMEES ? 
Sir, — I think it is high time that this question 
should be honestly put to the Biitish public. 
Firstly, because it is a fact. 
Secondly, because it is unjust. 
Thirdly, because it cannot be to the interest of 
consumers, that they should be forced to drink 
China rubbish simply because it pays the grocer, 
through a slip of the Government to give it them. 
Firstly, as regards the fact. Sir David Barbour 
and the Governor-General of India have both pub- 
licly stated that the stability of the rupee at Is 4d. 
is assured, and the opinion of such high authorities 
is conclusive. It means, as far as the tea planter 
in Ceylon and India is concerned, that a permanent 
premium is to be placed on he import into England 
of China teas, for, if the upee in India and Cey- 
lon continues to represent Is. 4d, when the same 
weight of silver of the China currency has become 
worth only Is., the China grower will be able to 
put as much tea into London, of a given qua ity 
tor Is as his Indian rival can, of the same quality, 
for Is 4d. 
With regard to my second point, that tliie is unjust, 
this goes, I think, without saying, but tbtre are always 
people who can pncup with any injustice practised on 
others, and by such i have been told that, after all, 
we, tea planters are not the only class that has suffered 
by bounties. That sugar producers havi suffered exactly 
ID the same way by the bounties put on beet sugar by 
France and Germany. In reply I say, that, if the two 
cases were parallel two wrongs don't make one right- 
But there is this important difference. In the case of 
sugar it was the foreign Government that gavo the 
bounty, and Great Britain, the victim of free trade, 
could do nothing to protect ita sugar planttr. . But. 
in the cane of tea, we find the British Government 
rashing to tbe opposite extreme and itself subsidising 
the foreigner to take the bread out of the mouth of 
British producers. If this is cot out-Heroding H ?rod 
I don't know what ii, 1 
Hy third point, that th'S bounty on China tee. is 
Kgaiufit tbe interext of th(> irapsts ni»y be best served 
b| M (Uutntion. The giover wiii dow bny Mamnll • 
Quantity of Ceylon tea, which pays him least and 
mis with it a larger quantity of China tea which 
pays him most, and will call' this in large letters, 
Pure Ceylon Tea, On the back of his packet will be 
a microsoopio label :— 
Shifter Shuffle and Fudge, 
Importers and Blenders of Indian, 
Oeylon and China Tea. 
The trick of palming of other teas under my own 
estate's name has been played freely on myself, eo 
I ought to know. 
HARCOURT SKRIKE. 
Osborne estate, DIkoya, Ceylon, Nov. 28th, 1893. 
II. 
Sib, — In my preoeeding letter 1 have endeavoured 
to represent to the public tbe injustice being done 
to Indian tea growers as well as to consumers 
by the currency legislation of the Imperial Gov- 
ernment, and I use, the word Imperial advisedly, be- 
cause the mischief has been effected by the Indian 
Government under instruotions from England. 
Let us now consider three possible remedies, pre- 
mifing that tbe object of each proposition is merely 
to plnce us, Indian tea planters, as we were as regards 
China and to ensure tbe consumers at home getting a 
good article. 
The first and most obvious remedy is simply that 
of putting a fresh 3d a lb, duty on China teas, during 
such time, at auy rate, aa the Government continues 
to maintain tbe rupee at a dishonest value. The 
Chinese Government could not justly complain be- 
cause there would be no injustice in the matter. The 
British consnmer would not complain because it would 
be tbe means of protecting him from a spurious article. 
A second remedy is the abolition of the duty on 
Indian and Ceylon teas alone. This would have the 
same result for the Indian planter, the Chinaman 
and the British consumer aa the former proposition 
and it should especially command itself to Mr. Glad- 
stone as a means of fulfilling one of his forgotten 
pledges of a " Free breakfast table." 
A third solution of the difficulty is that the Indian 
Government should be ordered to etip tinkering with 
the rupee, and to allow it to revert to its real value. 
Although Sir David Barbour has said with perfect 
truth that it is in the power of the Government 
to fix the rupee at Is 4d, it is perfectly easy to 
show from his own mouth that the maintenance 
of it at this rate can only be effected by enormous 
loss to the Government itself to be followed 
oltimately by a financial crisis more appalling than 
that which, for the time being, he has staved off. 
Sir iJavid Barbour himself stated with equal pub- 
licity in 1892 this axiom :— That any enhanced value 
placed on the rupee by closing the mints would be 
lost by a oorrespouding influx into circulation of 
false coins. Already we se (letters in the Indian 
newspapers shewing that this is going on on a grand 
scale in the Native States, and tbis is confirmed by 
tbe enormous purchasers of bar silver since the Go-, 
verument mints were closed. 
This is a nice nut for Lord Elgin and tbe Imperial 
Government to crack, and we may leave them to 
crack it, since it is only the business of theee letters 
to offer solutions the difficulty which ia affecting 
tea and British consumers of tea. — I am. &o., 
HARCOURT S>KRINE, 
Osborne, Dikoya, Ceylon, Nov. 28th, 1893. 
NEW PRODUCTS : MAGDEY OR ALOE 
AND HENEQUEN. 
Sib, — In a recently published book called "Tro- 
pical America "* I find tbe following oonoerning (he 
"maguey or iztle, a kind of aloe or oaatua which will 
grow freely on the most barren land. It says (p. 
325) that the moat remunerative agrionltnral 
« Tropical America. Edward Btanford, 26 Cockapn . 
