May I, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
763 
paid poorly. Tea is like sooiety : at first it was 
" a party, " few and Ee'eot. Brokers called it all 
SOttB ot sweet names, Mias Pekce was mild, full 
and flavoury— even Congou was admitted as having 
"body" &c. Later on it became a crowd, 
and strong lenguegfl had to bo bunted up to keep 
it in bounds. Nowadays it has become a mob 
and the police have to be called in to euppress it ; 
and the Brokers fly round and will soon have 
to appeal to foreiga languages for terms to induce 
produoeis to give up their pounds for tup-pence. 
Once upon a time red leaf (real good honest 
scarlet) need to fetch only 8 annas. It wau made 
from only the 6th to 10; h Isaf of the flush, and 
the plaaters in my country " thought and one 
ot them got an iron pan in which ha boiled bUU 
older tea leaves, and he thus made a sort of tea- 
ink (Tannin and Iron) and he sopped up this ink 
into his red leaf, and he got 10 annaa for it. 
Now Mr. " Bitter Cry " will tell you that we never 
669 the " teas of old." I would like to send him 
a hundred chests of that good, old, ink-faotd, 
double-dried, red leaf and ask him 10 annas a pound 
'° Just one thing more. Can you find out that man 
who bought tea in the local market and got 
eaorifioed over it ? Let ua find out how much he lost 
end pay the f mount to him in rupees (to as lo 
keep him in India) and then ask him to say no 
m>-,ra about it. Ho is always ehoved at " Any one 
of them" who wants to know, you knoy? Ami 
I want to know how much he lost on the tea 
lor which ha paid 2 bdubb 6 pie. ^^^^ 
p_ 5, Could anyone make up a table showing 
in ponoa at a penny rise, from lowest to biggest, 
pricea oblaiuod in London in 1893, the number of 
pounds sold at each price ; and do the same for 1883, 
and for 1876. Perhaps we shall see that a greater 
weight of tea oolJ at 2i 61. in 1893 than in 1876 
and I believe that W3 shall see that the higher 
prices are paid for a steady weight of tea and 
consequently that if too much of that quality 
of tea is sent, it has to go into the 
" penny " below. And it will be discovered that 
the lowest price ot all includes a great part 
of the increased output year by year.— 1874. 
VARIOUS AGRICULTURAL NOTES, 
LiBERUN Coffee cultivated with cacao 
and coconut palms ia doing well in the Kurunegala 
dlBttiot : on ArampoUa estate of Messrs. Harper 
and Davidson a crop equal to between 2 and 3 owt. 
per acre has set, though the coffee ib not above 3 to 
4 years old. , . 
Exi'ENSioN OF TEA I'LANiiSG IN AssAM.-The de- 
mand for te* laud id. we notice, inoreasiDg, and those 
prospeotiag for grants are abandoumg the old syRtem 
of delving deep a.noug the backwoods beiug estisfaod 
with poorer soil but greater proximity to comniuni- 
cations and eupply eentrea. The Habigune sab-divi- 
Bio.i iu 8. W. S>lhet is attrnoting attention, and, as 
the Chittagong-Aseam Railway line will ran through 
it the advantages are obvioua, while, at the aaone time 
high cultivation by lueans of muuures that can be 
brought by rail almo't direct to the gardens at small 
cost should secure »a luxuriant a growth as would 
be attained upon the virgin soil in remotely •ituated 
forests. So long as the sites selected are oonflned 
to localities near the hills so as to eeoure the raiutal 
Bunoees ihould ho pretty well assured, bnt we trrsj 
iutonding plantfrs will not he toniot.,! to rontino too 
f«r ont into th* mote a'id plains pr.i.cr, hoivovL-r 
promising draiu&ble bheel lands ccay be, for, tho ijih 
•arfaoe irrigation will stioonlate growth bv ospina.y 
attraclloD, tho loif, unlets itnoU well dreiiohcJ, w.ll 
not prove flaccid enough to PCBure Rooi outturn.— 
Papaw MiiK.— The "Ophir" whieh left recently 
for Lon ldn took away one case oontaiaing 50 lb papaw 
milk.— Lrcal '' Examiner." 
Tea in America. — Our morning contempor- 
ary writes of the " bounty " scheme as essentially 
an Ameiican idea. Now he ia surely aware of 
what we a< nounced in January last that Mr. 
P, B. Buchanan made three special visits to the 
United States to Ifam how best to introduce 
British-grown teas there, and that it was only 
on the third Gocasion that he got listened to by 
the wholesale dealers, and that they then — the 
largest importers ia New York and Chicago — 
deliberately told him,—" what you have to do is to 
ad»ertise your tf as to or ate a demand and send 
over a batch of native servants to be utilised 
in different outlying towns as we direct." This, 
it will be seen, is the policy just adopted by 
the Indian Tea Association. 
The Pallegama Land Gbant Association,— We 
hear that this Ccmpany has already made a com- 
mencement with the work of opeoing up a portion of 
the large block of land it baa acquired. This year 
no less than 200 acres are to be opened end planted 
with cooonntB, eocoa be'ng planted between the 
rows at the aaine time. The land is believed to be 
well suited for both these products, coconut trees 
growing in the adjacent villagea vtry well. Liberian 
coffee ia also to be tried cn a fairly large scale, and, 
should experiments in this direction prove suooetsful, 
ni dcubt many others will app!y for land, of which 
there is a great abundance in the vioinity. At present 
Mr. Gordon Reeves is looting after the woik; but 
a resident fcuperintendect is being eccnred, when the 
work will be vigorously taken in hand. A fotce (f 
about 150 Sichalose coolies is alreadv at work, and 
they are certain to benefit more rapidly than anyone 
else from the employment of Engliab capital and 
energy in proximity to their homes. 
Beiba Robber.— The India-rubber trea {Ficus 
elastica), says Mr. J. D. Ellis (recently returned 
from a trip up the East Coast of Africa), grows 
luxuriantly in these parts and ia well-known to 
the natives who tap it and as the sap exudea or 
bleeds (very Eimilar to the milk of the Euphorbia 
in thaae parts) thoy by the aid of a little piece 
of stick roll it round and round until about as 
thick as one's finger when they repeat the prooese 
with another piece of stick until tbe tree is 
ethaaated. In this form they sell the India-rubber 
to the traderSi who eagerly purchase it ; in fact it 
ij one ot the few articles of export from B^ira. 
A very fine tree, bearing a leaf very like the walnut, 
provides excellent ahade and is very attractive ; it 
also produces a bean, but tbe seeds are very small. I 
secured a number of thosa also.— Inciia Rubber 
Journal, 
The CoMPOtiSoitY Cultivation cf Coffee in Java. 
— From a reliable source it is reported that the 
newly-appointed inspector, Dr. Burck, who has 
made an investigation about the compulsory cofifee 
cultivation in Java, docs not consider the condi- 
tion so gloomy as was generally presumed. In 
Central Java the prospect" ore not encouragir g, 
and in many distriota there the Government will 
have to give up tho ouUivation, as has be-^n done 
already in the distriuta of Bantam and Japara. 
However, in Eastern J iva, and esp.-oially in 
Probo'inRo and Bezaekie, there is an abundance of 
magniticent ground suitable for tho cultivation of 
cotfee, and also in the Preanger districts tbo noil 
is certainly not exhausted. Dr. Burck seems to 
be a strong promoter of the system of granting; an 
extra payment for the opening and maintenance 
of coffee lan ls. b(?»i(!os tbe price paid for produce 
delivered.— iVdi/nji! AfdH, 
